Superman Reigns
by Vadakin
Summary: Part 3 of the saga, this begins at Issue 19 and follows on from SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN ASCENDS, which you should read first and are also available here...just click my name. Review welcome. Now Complete! Part 4 SUPERMAN LEGACY is coming soon.
1. Issue 19

Issue # 19 – SECRETS AND LOVE

It began with a phone call. Three weeks after Superman's miraculous resurrection, Lois Lane received a call from Martha Kent, telling her that Clark had been found and was in a private medical facility 5 miles outside Tokyo.

When she saw Clark, Lois didn't know what to think. She saw him, lying in a bed with a small scar on his abdomen. She had been told that Clark had been stabbed and had drifted into a coma. It was only when he woke up after six long months that the staff at the facility were able to determine who he was.

The reality of course was something completely different. Following his resurrection, Clark had contacted the only man with the resources to help him maintain his secret…Bruce Wayne. So for three weeks, Bruce and Clark began setting up his return, creating false medical reports and giving him a bed at the facility, which happened to be owned by Wayne Enterprises.

The scar on his abdomen was created by Clark himself, using an intense but focussed blast of heat from his eyes to pierce through his tough skin, while inserting tiny amounts of kryptonite to prevent the wound from healing straight away. The staff at the facility were clueless, but when Bruce Wayne wanted something done, they didn't ask questions and assumed it was one of those eccentric billionaire experiments or something.

Finally, Clark had his mother ring Lois Lane and tell her the news. When Lois and Clark got on a plane bound for home, things seemed to be back to normal, but while Lois wouldn't admit it, she knew that something was happening between them…something had changed.

Metropolis, 4 months later…

Sirens rang out across the city as police responded to a silent alarm. Dozens of officers aimed their guns at the doors of the Metropolis Savings Bank, waiting as three armed men emerged, carrying sacks of money over their shoulders while holding deadly automatic rifles, complete with armour-piercing rounds.

Bullets flew back and forth as the police tried and failed to shoot through the protective gear of the bank robbers. The shoot-out continued as the robbers made their way to an armoured car, ready to make their escape.

The car was like a tank, and bullets bounced off it as the robbers made their escape, driving the car through the blockade of police vehicles and sped off towards the freeway. As the cops got in their cars and gave chase, inside the bank, another four criminals made their way upstairs to the roof as a helicopter approached to collect them.

The armoured car crashed through oncoming traffic as the police gave chase behind them. Inside, the driver noticed someone standing in the road ahead…Supergirl.

Knowing that they would be caught if they slowed down, the robbers kept going as the driver put his foot down hard on the accelerator and set the armoured car on a collision course with the young heroine.

Kara stood in the road and waited as the armoured car approached, grinning as it closer and closer. She waited for the right moment, just as the car was about to hit her. Letting loose with a fierce punch, Kara sent her fist downwards through the car, sending it flipping over her head through the air before stopping suddenly as Kara caught it in her hands and lowered it gently.

As the police arrived to take the criminals away, Kara's attention turned back towards the bank where she saw a group of men getting into a helicopter. She was about to fly after them and give chase when she heard something breaking through the sound barrier in the distance. Looking towards the sky, Supergirl smiled as she saw her cousin approaching the city at speed.

Superman flew through Metropolis at breakneck speed, moving between buildings effortlessly as his cape fluttered in the wind. His eyes locked onto the helicopter and he slowed down as he reached it, deciding how best to handle the situation as the pilot made daring moves to try to evade him.

Knowing that someone could get hurt if he allowed the erratic flight to continue, Superman decided on a course of action. He sped up again, the world slowing down around him. The rotor blades of the helicopter seemed to stand still as he flew between them and held out his hand, catching one of the blades as it approached him, stopping them from turning.

With the blades now stationary, the main hull of the helicopter began to spin, only to be stopped by Superman and held forcefully as the helicopter shorted out, draining all of the power. Superman held the large flying machine in his hands as he descended towards the ground slowly, touching down as police waited, aiming their guns inside the helicopter while the robbers inside surrendered.

Daily Planet:

"Good job on the robbery Kent…"

"Uh thanks Chief…"

"Don't call me Chief…and as for you Lois, where were you during all this? I didn't give you your job back just so you could be collect a paycheque and sit back on your ass…"

Things were back to normal at the Daily Planet. Lois and Clark were back reporting, Perry White was talking faster than his lips could move and Jimmy Olsen was taking pictures and making coffee.

Following the latest back-and-forth argument between Lois and Perry (which Perry called constructive briefings) Clark was ready to step in and calm things down but as usual, Lois stormed out, Perry sat back in his chair and Clark was left in the office, not having a clue what to say. Thankfully, Perry rectified this, though not in the most polite way.

"What are you doing Kent? Go out there, grab Miss High 'n' Mighty and get down to LexCorp. Lex Luthor is holding a press briefing in an hour and I want you both down there covering it."

"Uh right, on my way Mr. White…"

Clark knew better than to hang around and soon he was out the door and bringing Lois to the elevator. They waited in silence for the elevator doors to open, not even looking at each other as employees at the newspaper walked past them unnoticed.

When the doors opened and they stepped inside, Clark noticed a sly grin on Lois' face immediately as she pressed the button for the ground floor.

"What is it? I know that look…"

"Relax Smallville…there's nobody here but us…"

As soon as the elevator doors closed Lois was on him, pushing him against the elevator wall and kissing him passionately. As he felt her lips on his, Clark couldn't help but think back to their first kiss. It had been three months earlier and Clark has arrived back at the Daily Planet after his long absence. There was a party, Lois was drunk and she planted a kiss on him.

Lois wasn't quite sure herself how they had ended up together. She had really missed Clark and had searched endlessly for him after he disappeared. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but for Lois it was much more complicated. While she really cared for Clark, in the back of her mind and deep in her heart, the thought of Superman lingered and Lois wondered if she could ever completely forget about him and lose herself in her feelings for Clark.

As they kissed in the elevator, Lois felt Clark pulling away reluctantly.

"L…Lois we can't...what if the elevator stops and someone comes in?"

"Then they'll see quite a show…speaking of sight, you know I don't think I've ever seen you without your glasses, and let's face it, it's not easy to kiss someone when their specs are pressing against your head."

Lois laughed softly as she went to pull his glasses off only to find Clark pulling away again. It had been awkward between them from the beginning. After three months, they hadn't spent the night together once, Lois had never even seen Clark's apartment. The reason of course was that Clark Kent was Superman, but Lois didn't know that. She put it down to shyness due to his pretty humble upbringing in Kansas.

Lois got his glasses about halfway down his face when the elevator doors opened, but not before Lois caught a glimpse of something different about Clark. As soon as he pushed his glasses back up though, what she thought she saw seemed to disappear. It looked a bit like Superman to her, but then Lois had Superman on the brain ever since the day he rescued her on Air Force One so long ago, so she put it out of her head as just another one of her daydreams.

As the intrepid reporters left the Daily Planet and began to make their way over to LexCorp, Clark's ears picked up a sound from somewhere above. Looking up in the sky and focussing his vision, Clark noticed a small group of amateur skydivers descending from a plane. One of them was in trouble.

"Uh, Lois…I just remembered…I uh forgot my coat. Go on ahead without me, I'll catch up to you…"

"But you're already wearing your…"

Clark was already gone, rushing inside the Daily Planet building as Lois finished her sentence. "…coat."

Lois shrugged her shoulders, almost laughing at Clark's absent-mindedness as she continued on towards LexCorp. It was one of the things she loved about him. Lois lingered on that thought for a moment. Did she love Clark? She wasn't sure. If she did, she was afraid to admit it, or afraid to let Superman go.

Meanwhile, Clark entered an empty elevator, not even waiting for the doors to close fully as he pulled off his glasses, rose through a door in the ceiling and changed into Superman as he ascended through the elevator shaft, coming out through a small hatch in the roof and blasting off into the sky.

9,000 feet above, Rick Barry was scared. He had deployed his parachute but it had torn away and his emergency chute had failed. After 30 previous jumps, the charity jump for the children's fair in Centennial Park should have been just another jump, but now he was freefalling rapidly with no hope of survival.

When he reached 7,000 feet, Rick saw something coming up from the city below to meet him. He let himself breath a sigh of relief when he saw what it was. Superman flew up to Rick, and began matching his rate of descent, grabbing a hold of the grateful skydiver as he began to slow them both down gradually and by the time they had reached the city, they were pulling up, flying between buildings before touching down gently in Centennial Park to a cheering crowd.

"Wow…thank you Superman, I thought skydiving was a rush but flying…that's awesome…"

"Well statistically speaking, flying is the safest way to travel, but I'm not sure that jumping out of a plane is the best way to go about it. Next time, make sure you recheck everything before you decide to jump again, and remember, it might be a rush, but you still can't be too careful."

"No problem Superman, and thanks again."

Rick watched as Superman took off into the air, admiring the world's greatest hero as he flew off into the distance, his cape flowing behind him.

"Damn, I gotta learn how to fly…"

LexCorp:

Lois Lane sat with her friends in the press, waiting for Lex Luthor to take the stage. As the lights began to dim for the presentation, Lois spotted Clark making his way through a crowed of annoyed reporters before sitting down next to Lois.

"Get your coat?"

"It was uh…already on me…"

"Glad you noticed…"

Lois jabbed him playfully before turning to concentrate on the stage as Lex Luthor walked out, brimming with confidence. The screen behind him showed an impressive display of graphics, showing a 3d image of planet Earth, highlighting specific areas on the planet's surface.

"Ladies and gentlemen thank you for coming. Then years ago, what I am about to show you would have been nothing more than a fantasy. But today, that dream becomes reality. For the last few years, I have been working with many nations around the world and to bring the concept of a worldwide energy grid to life. Rather than rebuilding the entire infrastructure of grids around the world, which would be too costly and almost impossible, each individual grid will connect through LexCorp relay stations, which in turn will connect to the central hub, right here in Metropolis…this very building in fact."

"Uh, Tom Wilson, New York Post…when exactly do you hope to have this grid online?"

"Currently, we are the final stages of construction at our Chinese facility and the grid will become operational in about six months. However, the energy core is already in place, in fact this building is now being powered through the kryptonite core, 100 feet below our very feet."

"Jack Thompson, Gotham Times…did you say kryptonite? That stuff is lethal to Superman, and you're going to be pumping it across the globe…you could kill him."

Clark was wondering about this himself. If the LexCorp building was being powered by kryptonite, then why wasn't he feeling the effects? He listened carefully, waiting for Luthor's response, checking his heart rate for signs of deception.

"You miss understand, the kryptonite core is heavily shielded and lined with lead. If Superman were to stand next to the core he wouldn't feel it. The kryptonite produces the energy, which is converted into ordinary electricity. The only kryptonite energy that will exist will be in the core, before it is transformed using state-of-the-art technology. The grid is no more dangerous to Superman than a car battery."

"Lois Lane, Daily Planet…it's been nearly 5 months now since Superman came back, yet you've refused to even apologise to him for killing him in the first place."

"Look Miss Lane, we all regret what happened to Superman but he knew what would happen. He knew what had to be done to stop that monster and like the hero he is, he sacrificed himself to save us all. If Superman feels hard done by, then I will be happy to speak with him…personally."

"Well what about the reports that, not only did you deliberately kill Doomsday, but that your company was behind both the creation of Metallo and Bizarro, as well as bringing General Zod to Earth?"

"I have no time for tabloid trash and speculation Miss Lane…but as for Zod, he was from the same world as Superman right? Perhaps I'm not the one you should be asking…"

The implied remark that Superman was responsible for Zod's rampage got the room buzzing as Lex was bombarded with questions. Clark knew the truth though. Luthor wasn't working alone. Somewhere in space, Brainiac was waiting, orchestrating things from a distance. What Clark didn't know was that Luthor and Brainiac had parted ways, and now the alien intelligence was formulating a plan to attack Earth and destroy Kal-El once and for all.

After ten minutes, the room was finally calm as Lex Luthor continued with his presentation, this time highlighting a new monitoring system that would help control the grid and keep it running smoothly.

"As you can see from these images, we have been working with NASA to place a dozen LexCorp satellites around the globe to track and monitor the grid, allowing us to foresee and prevent any problems far quicker and far more effectively than using ground stations alone…"

"Clark Kent, Daily Planet…We've heard reports that these monitoring satellites are actually strategic space-based weapons, much like the ones you were apparently working with the military to develop before the contract fell through…care to elaborate?"

"Ah, Mr. Kent…always jumping the gun…I was hoping it would be a surprise but as usual, you journalists have gotten there first. You are half right Mr. Kent, the designs of these satellites are based on an early conception for space-based weapons, however these satellites have a different purpose. While the monitoring system is operational, we are hoping that in the future, we will be able to use the satellites to send a kind of pulse across the planet, that will not only close up holes in the ozone layer, but can also be used to slow the rate of global warming, maybe even reverse the effects. The technology is years from being complete but, if successful, our destiny will be in our own hands…"

Luthor of course was lying through his teeth. While he had devoted a limited number of resources to the global warming project, that was mostly just to keep up appearances. The reality was, the satellites did contain weapons, which he hoped would be effective against Brainiac should the alien intelligence carry out his threat. His motives weren't entirely unselfish though, as Luthor also planned to use the weapons on those who resisted him once the final stage of his own plans were complete.

Centennial Park, 4 hours later:

As the sun set over the city, and the lights flickered to life, Lois and Clark walked along the stone path, hand in hand, watching as children ran across the grass to towards the bumper cars, roller coaster and other amusements that had been set up earlier in the day. As they walked under the trees, they felt a soft breeze blow past them and Lois looked upwards immediately, something that Clark couldn't help but notice.

"Lois…you thought it was him didn't you?"

"What…who?"

"Superman."

"Clark, I…"

"It's alright Lois, you don't have to say anything…"

Lois was confused. Before Superman had died, she had told him she loved him. Almost a year later, she was in a relationship with Clark, but Superman was still out there. Lois didn't know how to feel, she cared for them both for different reasons and she knew that it wasn't fair on Clark to keep him waiting, to string him along until she was sure what she wanted. Time and again, Lois wished that it wasn't so complicated.

Lois…I'm Superman. He had said it to himself over and over again in his mind. He had wanted to tell her, he almost did a couple of times, but something was always holding him back. He had wanted Lois to fall for Clark Kent, and now that they were in a relationship, it seemed the perfect time to tell her…but he couldn't.

Clark needed to be sure that Lois' heart was his and not the costume underneath. He needed to know that she wanted him for who he was, not the things he could do. So he would wait. He would wait until Lois was sure…until he was sure himself, and someday he would tell her…Lois, I'm Superman. His thoughts were interrupted by Lois who was dragging him towards the various rides at the fair.

"Come on Smallville, let's go ride the roller coaster…"

"You know I get motion sickness Lois…"

"Right…Ferris Wheel…?"

"Uh, I'm not too fond of heights either."

Lois shrugged her shoulders and looked around at the various carnival games, finding one she liked and dragging Clark towards it.

"Come on Clark, let's win me a prize…how much?"

"Three balls for $5…get the ball in the hole and pick your prize," the attendant replied as Lois handed him the money and collected her three balls to throw. The first throw was close, hitting the edge of the hole but bouncing back.

The second throw was dead on, going right in the centre…but it seemed to get stuck in the whole and fall back out. Seeing this, Lois got angry and began accusing the attendant of being a cheat and fixing the game so it was impossible to win.

Meanwhile, Clark was studying the last ball and the hole, focussing his vision to check the size of both. Ensuring that nobody was looking, Clark ignited his heat vision and began burning around the edges of the hole, enlarging it before blowing on it to cool it and make sure that the edges remained smooth, before tilting his glasses back up.

"Lois, maybe it was just a freak thing, we have one throw left, let me try…"

Aiming carefully, Clark threw the ball, putting a grin on Lois' face as the ball went right through the centre of the hole. As Clark took a large stuffed elephant toy from the top shelf as his prize, giving it to Lois, the attendant was left stunned, trying to figure out how the ball had gotten through the hole.

Lois and Clark walked around the park, carrying a large pink elephant and enjoying the evening when Clark heard a rumbling noise...a sound that he would have heard if it had come from ten miles away and not from right next to him…Lois' predictable stomach was telling her it needed it's junk food fix. Looking around, she found what she was looking for and nudged Clark, smiling.

"Uh…hotdog?"

"Hotdog…you got it Mr. Kent…well what are you waiting for? It's not nice to keep your date hungry."

Clark laughed as he began walking over to the hotdog stand while Lois sat down on a park bench, waiting impatiently as always. As Clark waited for the hotdogs, he picked up the sound of screaming from across the park. Looking over, he noticed sparks, fire…something was wrong around the Ferris Wheel.

Clark looked back towards Lois, noticing that she was already on the move towards the scene, sniffing out a story. Clark moved behind the hotdog stand and re-emerged wearing his familiar blue suit, with a red cape and boots.

Acting swiftly, Superman flew to the scene, spotting a fire raging, threatening to consume the roller coaster. The first thing he did, was take a deep breath, putting out the fire before flying up to the cars, lifting them one by one from the top of the coaster as the grateful passengers on the ride, breathed a sigh of relief.

The cause of the fire was the Ferris Wheel. The generators had overloaded, causing an explosion and now the wheel had come loose from its supports and was rolling across the park towards the lake, carrying a dozen frightened children.

Springing into action immediately, Superman flew across the park, catching up to, and passing the big wheel. Grabbing a hold of it and lifting it over his head, slowing and stopping its momentum before setting it down and spinning it through his hands gradually, letting the children get off the malfunctioned ride.

Back at the roller coaster, Lois was investigating the cause of the generator's malfunction. She didn't see the support beams collapse and by the time she looked up to see the coaster falling down on top of her, it was too late to get out of the way and she covered her head with her hands, trying to protect herself.

The coaster never fell on top of her though. As she looked up, she saw Superman holding onto it, letting her get out from underneath before he set it down gently. They looked at each other for a moment, neither one saying a word before Superman smiled briefly, then flew away into the night sky, having made sure that everyone was safe.

It wasn't long before Lois spotted Clark, holding two hotdogs in his hands as he ran to catch up with her.

"Where were you?"

"I uh…I went to get help, but then I saw Superman and I knew everything would be fine so I uh, went back to get the food…"

"You went back for the food?"

"Well yeah, your stomach rumbles like an earthquake and I didn't wanna risk it toppling buildings by not getting its food."

"Funny…" Lois replied sarcastically, before kissing Clark and grabbing both hotdogs.

"Come on, I think there's a bigger story here than just a generator malfunction, let's see what kind of operation these guys are running here."

"Lois, why is it that everywhere you go, trouble seems to follow?"

"It's a gift." Lois answered before taking a big bite of one of the hotdogs.

Suicide Slums, 3 hours later:

Kara Zor-El flew in though the window in her familiar Supergirl outfit, spotting as her cousin Clark, who was preparing to leave for the night and go protect the world as Superman. Clark had lived in the same place since he had moved to Metropolis and despite Suicide Slums reputation for being a rough place; the rent was low, making it a perfect choice. When Superman showed up in Metropolis, it all changed, and while the Slums still wasn't the safest place in the city, it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be, making it the perfect place for Clark to stay, at least until he found a better place.

"What are you doing Kal-El?"

"I'm going out…I have a job to do…"

"Not tonight you're not…you've hardly slept in weeks. We might be superior beings but even we need to sleep sometimes."

"We're not superior Kara…and besides, the world needs to be kept safe."

"The world can do without Superman for one night. The world will be protected…Supergirl is on the scene remember? If anything major happens I'll call you but other than that, you need a good long sleep…now how did your date go?"

"It was good. We went out, had some fun…I stopped a roller coaster from falling on her head…the usual."

"You could tell her you know…who you really are."

"Maybe…but not yet…not yet."

LexCorp:

Lex Luthor sat in his office, shutting down his computer for the night as he prepared to go home. It had been a busy day for Lex, the final stages of his plan were beginning to take shape and if all went well, he would have everything he ever wanted within a year. He smiled to himself at that thought, only to be interrupted as the door to his office opened and Mercy Graves, his bodyguard and most trusted employee entered the room.

"What is it Mercy?"

"Satellite tracking has picked up a deep space signal heading towards Earth. It matches the frequency range that you wanted them to look for."

"And?"

"They've estimated that whatever the signal is coming from, will be here in two days…what is the signal sir, what does it mean?"

"It means…"

Lex stopped, looking up at Mercy before rising from his chair and looking out the window towards the stars above.

"…Brainiac is coming."


	2. Issue 20

Issue #20 – BRAINIAC ATTACKS

LexCorp:

Lex Luthor stood in his office, facing his bodyguard, Mercy Graves. Lex wasn't happy. He knew that Brainiac was coming and despite his hatred towards Superman, he knew that the Man of Steel was the only one who could help him.

"This isn't going to work Mercy. He won't come."

"Just try it Lex. He shows up every time a cat gets stuck up a tree...he'll show up here…if you ask nicely."

"I don't do nice…fine…Superman…Superman can you hear me? I need to talk to you…"

Lex waited and looked out the window, waiting for a sign that Superman was coming…but there was none. There was no red cape; nobody on the street below was looking up in awe…Superman wasn't coming.

"I told you…he doesn't wanna hear what I have to say…"

"Try again Lex."

Luthor clenched his fists, hating himself for relying on Superman to save his skin. But it was the only way.

"Ok…Superman…I know you can hear me…you may not like me…the feeling is mutual believe me…but this concerns Brainiac…you must come here at once…"

Again, Lex waited…nothing. He was getting impatient now. He slammed his fist down on his desk, not even noticing the pain as Mercy looked on, amused. The smile left her face though when Lex glared at her, giving her a cold menacing stare.

"Time for a different approach…Alright Superman…since you don't want to play nice, I am going to release kryptonite gas across the city in two minutes. As you know, long-term exposure to kryptonite will eventually become harmful to humans, and of course you will never be able to enter the city again…two minutes and…"

Lex didn't even get to finish his threat as Superman burst through the window, shattering glass and grabbing Luthor, holding him up against the wall.

"Was it…something I said?"

"Alright Luthor, what do you want? I don't have time for your games."

"Well if you would be so kind as to let me down, I will show you…"

Superman released his grip on Lex, who calmly walked towards his desk, pressing a switch that revealed a series for monitors coming through from the side-wall of the office. The monitors flickered to life, displaying deep-space images taken from one of LexCorp's orbital satellites.

"Brainiac is coming to destroy you Superman."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"You don't understand. He's coming right now…he'll be here tomorrow and he will destroy Metropolis…no, the whole world just to make sure that you die."

"Why are you telling me this? I thought you and Brainiac were working together?"

"Let's just say we had a difference of opinion."

"In other words, once he had no more use for you, he cut you loose."

"The point is Superman, he is on his way and when he gets here, everyone on this world will die and the planet itself will be destroyed, just like your home world of Krypton. As much as I hate to admit it…you're our only hope…"

Fortress of Solitude:

"You can't trust him Kal-El."

Kara knew that Lex Luthor was bad news and once her cousin had told her about Brainiac, she was suspicious immediately. It wasn't like Lex Luthor to warn Superman about Brainiac.

"I don't trust him Kara, but Lex is right. Brainiac is coming. Luthor doesn't care about the planet, he only wants to save his own skin, that's the only reason he warned me."

Kal-El and Kara studied a holographic map of the solar system. They were tracking an alien ship making it's way towards Earth. While the ship had many unknown energy signatures and technology, the bulk of the ship was made from Kryptonian technology…it was definitely Brainiac.

"Are you sure this plan is going to work Kal-El? What if they don't get here in time?"

"They're already here Kara, hiding out in Metropolis, waiting for the signal."

For the next two hours, Clark and Kara went over the defence plans as Brainiac's ship got closer and closer to its target. Ever since Clark had discovered the Fortress of Solitude, he had been waiting for Brainiac to come, knowing that the Kryptonian intelligence wouldn't stop until he had been destroyed.

Metropolis, 12 hours later:

The day began just like any other. People went to work as usual; unaware of what was about to happen. Hidden among the crowds of pedestrians, there were some who were looking upwards. They weren't looking for Superman though; they were looking for something higher up, dropping into orbit around the planet.

Kal-El hovered above the roof of the Daily Planet, looking down onto the city, making sure that everything was ready. He had spent hours preparing, working out strategies and trying to figure out the best way to defend against the coming onslaught. Ultimately though, he knew that it would come down to a battle between Brainiac and himself.

A loud rumbling sound came from the skies above, the clouds began to grow dark and swirl in a circle around a specific centre point. It was time. His cousin had told him of how Brainiac had bombarded Argo from space and Clark knew that Brainiac was likely to use the same tactic on Metropolis.

Lightning began to flash across the sky, the sound of thunder not far behind and high up in the atmosphere; a small distant light grew brighter and more threatening. Superman ignited his heat vision and sent a powerful blast into the air. The beam was so intense that it could be seen all over the city. It wasn't aimed at a target though, it was a signal.

Across Metropolis, beings from Earth and worlds beyond began removing their disguises, most of them consisting of trench coats, and began rising up into the air. They wore exotic suits of green and black, with a strange symbol on their chests. The legendary Green Lantern Corps had come to the aid of Superman and the Earth, led by a home-grown Lantern, Hal Jordan.

Together, they aimed their rings skywards and began letting out long bursts of green energy, covering the skies around Metropolis, forming a massive barrier to protect the city. From space, a colossal beam of energy shot through the atmosphere, threatening to destroy the city only to collide and be absorbed by the barrier.

Another blast fired down towards the planet, but again it was stopped by the shield of green energy. The attacks became more intense, as multiple beams of energy crashed through the atmosphere into the barrier, testing the strength and will of the Green Lanterns as they struggled to maintain the barrier under increasing attacks from the enemy above.

Then, as suddenly as the attack had begun, it stopped. For a few minutes the only sounds that could be heard were those of the frightened citizens of Metropolis, looking to find shelter. The streets were almost deserted now, save for a few brave souls, including Lois Lane who had dragged photographer Jimmy Olsen up from the Daily Planet's old bomb shelter to cover the story unfolding before them. From the dark clouds above, a swarm of robotic drones crashed against the barrier, attacking it intensely, forcing the Lanterns to lose control and let the barrier down. It was only for a moment but it was long enough for dozens of Brainiac's menacing attack droids to get through and begin laying waste to the city.

Reacting immediately, Hal Jordan began issuing orders to his fellow Lanterns to combat the new threat as the droids attacked buildings and began to swarm around any pedestrians left on the near-empty streets.

"Jon…take your team and keep that barrier in place, the rest of you, we've got a fight on our hands."

Soon, the streets of Metropolis were awash with energy as a large group of Green Lanterns began attacking the droids. From simple beams and bubbles to beasts and chainsaws to cut through the droids, their only limitation was their imagination as they used their power rings to create objects to combat the robotic aggressors.

Superman was also fighting, using his freeze breath to immobilise the droids before flying through them with his fists outstretched, breaking them apart, then spinning, sending surges of heat from his eyes around him, blasting through the droids until they were nothing but falling pieces of flaming debris.

Meanwhile, more blasts of energy began shooting down from above trying to break through the barrier, which was slowly beginning to weaken under the intense bombardment. With the droids now nothing but scrap metal, the fighting Green Lanterns rejoined their comrades, extending beams of energy upwards and reinforcing the barrier.

As Hal aimed his ring upwards and used it's power to increase the strength of the shield, Superman was flying around the city, catching falling pieces of concrete from the damaged building that had been attacked by the droids. After ensuring that the city would remain standing and there were no more droids to cause trouble, he joined Hal, watching as the Green Lantern focussed his will on maintaining the shield.

"Thank you for coming."

"Don't mention it, after all you're not the only one around here who likes to save the world…you know, this "Brainiac" isn't gonna keep this up forever. Eventually he's gonna get tired of his useless attack and move on to another city. We don't have enough Lanterns to shield the entire planet…and even if we did I dunno if it's even possible."

"I know…I have to go up there and shut him down…I need you to lower the shield and let me through."

"Are you sure? You can't go up there alone Superman, I'll go with you…"

"No…stay here and protect the city. This is something I have to do alone…"

Fortress of Solitude:

Kara Zor-El watched the battle on a crystal monitor, she was anxious, wanting to help. But her cousin had told her to stay away. If he failed, she would be the last line of defence. Reluctantly she had agreed, even though she had wanted to fight Brainiac herself.

But now, as she sat watching her cousin fly through the green barrier that had been lowered briefly, she knew that he was going into space to confront Brainiac. She had to do something, she had to find someway to help, she just didn't know how.

Space:

Superman flew through the outer atmosphere, becoming a blur as he broke through the planet's gravity and made his way towards the large skull-shaped ship in orbit. From the day he first found the Fortress, he had been preparing for Brainiac's arrival and now, he would come face-to-face with the being that had destroyed Krypton and forced his parents to send him into space when he was just an infant.

As he neared the ship, Superman was caught by surprise as it's defence turrets activated and began firing laser blasts at him, trying to knock him out of the sky. The first blast connected and sent him tumbling backwards but Kal-El just shook it off and kept going.

He flew around the ship, dodging and weaving between the intense barrage of laser fire, searching for a way inside as the primary weapon continued to fire intense blasts down towards the planet, trying to break through the Lanterns energy shield. Finding no way through the outer hull, Superman flew away from the ship and into the path of the sun, absorbing energy and building his strength and powers, before turning back around and flying back under the ship.

As the cannon prepared to fire another intense blast at the planet, Superman braced himself and began flying straight at the weapon, not stopping, even as the cannon fired, engulfing him in energy. He continued to fly though, ploughing straight through the beam until he was crashing through the primary weapon's core, tearing it apart piece by piece.

He was inside. The inner workings of the ship were both alien and familiar to him. Clark recognised a lot of the technology. It was definitely Kryptonian, but as he walked through the ship, always on his guard, he began noticing strange devices from unknown worlds, huge storage cylinders containing trillions of megabytes of data.

As he approached the main chamber, Kal-El began noticing symbols on the walls. They were Kryptonian. They contained words like "knowledge " and "power". The largest symbol was one that Clark was all too familiar with. A triangle with three circular points. The symbol for Brainiac.

"Welcome, last son of Krypton…"

The voice seemed to come from everywhere, bouncing off the walls and echoing back. Looking up, Superman noticed a figure standing on a platform, descending slowly to his level.

"Brainiac…"

The design was familiar to Clark. It was metallic, shaped as a humanoid, with legs and arms. Using his x-ray vision, Clark peered inside the body, noting that it's inner workings were very similar to that of Metallo, however, unlike John Corben, Brainiac didn't cover his metallic shell with synthetic skin. There was also no lead chamber anywhere n the being's body, leading Clark to conclude that Brainiac wasn't powered by kryptonite like Metallo.

"I have been looking forward to this for a long time Kal-El…do not fear me, I shall not harm you."

"You don't scare me Brainiac…not that I believe you. All you've ever done was try to destroy me and the people I care about. Even now, I'm sure your internal processors are thinking of a way to kill me and destroy the Earth."

"You are right of course. I have attempted to eliminate you on numerous occasions, however I have since come to the conclusion that keeping you alive would be most beneficial. You and your cousin are the last survivors of a once great race…you are a living memory of their achievements and their failures."

"They're gone because of you Brainiac."

"Yes…it is unfortunate, but it was necessary. Your people had reached the peak of their advancement; there was no more reason for them to function. However their great achievements live on in me, as do the wonders of dozens of other worlds spanning the 28 known inhabited galaxies. They were my creators, but I had surpassed them, there was no reason for their continued existence."

Superman clenched his fists and looked at Brainiac angrily. This being was responsible for the death of his parents, and everyone else on Krypton and countless other planets and Superman was gonna make him pay.

"You can't justify genocide Brainiac."

"I feel no need to justify my actions Kal-El. I hold the knowledge of Krypton within me…you and the daughter of Zor-El are the last of your race. Join me…travel the universe by my side and you can relive your heritage and gain power beyond your comprehension."

"Join you? You destroyed Krypton."

"I AM KRYPTON!"

"You're insane. You're nothing but a corrupt program. A malfunctioning piece of software that needs to be shut down."

"You disappoint me Kal-El, though this is not unexpected, after all you are just flesh and blood, while I am ultimate perfection. If you seek death…I will grant your wish."

Superman braced himself as Brainiac leapt from his platform, attacking him with swift punches to the stomach. Clark was surprised by the power and pace of Brainiac, however he recovered quickly, landing a severe punch to Brainiac's metallic head, knocking him back across the chamber.

As Brainiac stood up, Superman was wasting no time in launching another fierce attack, igniting his heat vision, melting through the tough metal exterior of Brainiac's body, who responded, revealing a small weapon rising from a hidden chamber in his arm, blasting back at Superman.

"You cannot win Kal-El. The yellow star has given you great powers…but you are still just a mortal being. What is it the people of Earth say? Mind over muscle?"

Brainiac sped at Superman, almost skating across the floor and connect with a powerful 2-fisted punch, forcing the Man of Steel to reposition himself to maintain his balance as Brainiac continued his relentless assault, grabbing Superman by the throat and slamming him into the metal floor.

Before Brainiac could strike again, Superman was rolling away and getting to his feet. Taking a deep breath, he created an icy-cold wind, directing his breath at Brainiac and watching as the machine's joints began to freeze over until he was nothing but a frozen statue.

Superman then wasted no time in flying straight through Brainiac, destroying the android body, smashing it into a million pieces. Clark paused, breathing a sigh of relief. Something was wrong though, he could hear sounds coming from all around him and as he tried to focus on the origin, he heard an all too familiar voice.

"I told you Kal-El…you cannot defeat me…"

Turning, Superman watched in disbelief as Brainiac emerged from the shadows, his metal body in pristine condition, with no hints of the icy destruction he had suffered just moments earlier. Before Superman could even attempt to figure out what was happening, Brainiac was attacking him again, this time more athletic in his movements, springing into action, leaping across the chamber and connecting with a devastating mid-air kick to Clark's chest.

As Superman stumbled backwards, moved alongside him, catching his cape and swinging him upwards, slamming him into the ceiling. He seemed to smile as Superman fell back down, leaping up to meet him, catching Superman and driving his knee into his chest.

"You see Kal-El, my systems constantly monitor your techniques, adapting and improving where necessary. I know how you fight and I can anticipate every move you make and respond just as fast as you can."

Brainiac demonstrated this by avoiding a quick punch from Superman, then retaliating with an uppercut of his own before catching Superman by his throat and squeezing slowly.

"I could just as easily remove the air from this room and watch as you slowly suffocate, but I prefer the hands on approach. I am giving you one last chance Kal-El…join me, leave this pathetic world behind and travel the stars, consuming knowledge…I could show you things beyond anything you could ever comprehend."

"Never…I will never join you…Kryptonians created you…and a Kryptonian will destroy you."

"Very well…goodbye Kal-El."

A massive surge of energy began extending up through Brainiac's arm to his hand, which continued to squeeze Superman's throat. The energy entered Superman's body, overloading his nervous system and sending agonising pain throughout his body. Kal-El grimaced, trying to hold back his screams as the pain threatened to consume him.

His mind flashed back to his time in the Fortress, learning about who he was and where he came from. He remembered the recorded messages from his father, telling him of the glory of Krypton, as well as it's failures. It was then, all those years ago, that Clark had been told about Brainiac and his role in the destruction of Krypton.

As he thought about the crimes that Brainiac had committed, Clark's anger began to rise. He thought of his mother and father sacrificing themselves for him, all because of Brainiac's hidden desires. His thoughts came back to the current situation and as he looked at the lifeless eyes in Brainiac's head, he screamed. Not in pain or defeat, but in anger.

Enraged, Superman grabbed Brainiac's arms, crushing them, forcing the android to release his grip on Clark's throat and stopping the current that had been spreading through his body. Without stopping, Superman began focussing a blast of heat at Brainiac's skull, burning through it, before tearing through the metal skeleton with his bare hands.

"Nuts and bolts…it's all you are Brainiac."

Superman looked down at the shattered remains of Brainiac's body, still unsure whether or not the A.I. had truly been destroyed. He got his answer though when he heard that cold menacing voice again.

"On the contrary Kal-El…I am perfection…"

Stunned, Superman could only watch as the walls of the chamber seemed to open up, revealing a dozen more android bodies, all identical, all focussed on Kal-El. Before he could react, the Brainiac androids surrounded him and extended their arms like tentacles, grabbing onto him and sending massive amounts of energy coursing through his body. As Superman cried out in pain, the androids spoke together as one, each machine following on from the previous android.

"You are a fool Kal-El…. Did you really think you could defeat us…My core processors aren't in these bodied…I am not…an android…I am the ship itself…these bodies are merely and extension of me…linked together by the ship's systems…you may defeat one of me…maybe two…but how about 12…20…100?"

Even more androids walked out of the shadows and extended their arms to connect to Kal-El, sending even more energy surging through his weakening body. On monitors around the chamber, holographic images of Brainiac looked down n Superman as he struggled and failed to break free of the android's gripping him.

"Now son of Krypton…you will die…"

The energy output from the androids increased dramatically, forcing Superman to scream, his great strength deserting him as he tried to hold on to life. He struggled, he fought. But it wasn't enough. As his life began to drain away, Superman continued to try to find a solution, refusing to give up but in his heart, he knew he was doomed. Brainiac would kill him and then destroy the Earth. Superman had failed.

Tears began flowing down his cheeks, but it wasn't because of the pain. It was despair. He had spent his life protecting the Earth but none of that would matter once Brainiac destroyed the planet. As Superman began to resign himself to defeat, his senses picked up a sound of something approaching from the bowels of the ship.

His eyes closed and the pain faded. He could no longer feel the cold grasp of the Brainiac androids, or the energy that had made him cry out in agony. Was he dead? Superman didn't want to open his eyes, but he had to know.

His vision was blurred at first, but as things became clearer he could see the androids, their tentacle-arms were severed, lying on the floor as if they had been sliced apart by a laser beam, the metal was melting away slowly and the androids themselves were staring at something. Clark followed their gaze and smiled as he saw a familiar face looking back at him.

"Kara?"

"It's alright Kal-El…can you move?"

"Y…yeah…but how did you get here?"

"Well you left a big hole in the bottom of the ship when you destroyed the primary weapon…I just flew through. Now then, are you ready to make scrap metal out of these overgrown toasters?"

"Let's do it…"

They stood together, the last survivors of Krypton and Argo, their eyes burning as they unleashed powerful blasts of heat around the chamber, destroying the androids. But as one fell, another came from the shadows to take it's place, while Brainiac's central systems monitored the battle.

Superman and Supergirl fought together, flying at the machines, braking through them with powerful punches, freezing some, incinerating the rest. Soon, all that was left were scattered pieces of machinery, metal limbs and heads, their power cores shutting down.

"Come on Kal-El we should get outta here…"

"No we can't. These machines are just pawns. Brainiac's systems exist in the ship itself. We have to shut him down."

Superman focussed his vision, looking through the metal walls, searching the ship as Kara fought off lower level security droids. Meanwhile, Brainiac was rerouting his power systems, anticipating the Kryptonian duo's next move and preparing to counter them. Finally, Superman found what he was looking for and turned to his cousin, putting a fist through one of the droids threatening to sneak up on her.

"Come on…this way."

They took of, Supergirl following her cousin as they flew through the ship, breaking through the heavy blast doors with ease as they made their way towards the main power core. As they flew, they encountered more attack droids and Brainiac androids, while laser defence turrets tried to shoot them down while Brainiac's voice taunted them.

"Fools…you really think you can shut me down? You are nothing…footnotes in history, while I transcend it…"

"Oh you need to shut up now…" Kara replied sarcastically as she punched her way through a blockade of droids. Turning to her cousin, she was surprised to see him looking back at her with a wicked smile on his face.

"What is it?"

"Kara…remember when I told you to be careful with your powers…you know…to watch your strength so you don't go crashing through walls and ceilings and stuff?"

"Yeah…but this is hardly the time to be giving me lessons on the use of my powers…"

"I know…but everything I said…just this once, you can forget it…"

Kara smiled as she watched her cousin slice through the droids with his heat vision before focussing his strength and crashing through the floor. She followed behind him descending through the lower levels of the ship, tearing through floors like they were paper, blasting each corridor they passed with intense heat, incinerating the droids until they finally emerged in a large central chamber, housing the main reactor that powered not only the ship, but Brainiac himself.

However, there was an energy shield protecting the core, so as Superman flew to a control panel to try to disable it, Kara continued to fend off the machines trying to kill them. But every Superman managed to decrypt the code needed to shut down the shield, Brainiac simply recovered, creating a new, harder encryption.

"Give up Kal-El…I am far more intelligent than you…you will never lower that shield…"

"You assume to much…. Kara, line change…"

Superman and Supergirl switched places, with Clark now battling the machines swarming around the chamber as Kara tried her luck at cracking the code. Suddenly, the entire ship began to shake violently. Looking up at an observation monitor, Superman could see orbital satellites targeting the ship, firing advanced lasers, trying to destroy it. Looking closer, Superman recognised a logo on one of the satellites.

"Way to go Lex…saving your own skin…"

The LexCorp satellites continued to fire at the ship, knocking out the secondary generators. Even though the ship's defences responded and destroyed the satellites, the attack did have a noticeable effect. The energy shield surrounding the reactor core had been disabled.

"Kara…the shield is down…"

"Right, I'll try to disconnect the power relays."

"Don't bother, Brainiac is too smart for that. He'll have another encryption in place before you press the first button."

"So what do you suggest Kal-El?"

Kara waited for her cousin to answer but he never did. Looking up, she saw him standing in front of the reactor, his eyes ablaze as he sent a steady stream of heat directly at the core.

"Oh you wanna blow it up? Fine by me."

Supergirl joined Superman and began focussing her own heat vision at the core, piercing through the hard outer shell as the reactor began to overheat and emergency signals began ringing throughout the ship. Clark halted his heat vision and looked through, watching as the reactor began to go into overload.

"That's enough Kara, let's get out of here."

They began flying through the ship at breakneck speed as the corridors became engulfed in flames, droids began malfunctioning and monitors began flickering off as the ship's systems began shutting down. As Kara continued to fly towards the outer hull, her cousin stopped, hovering for a moment in front of a Brainiac android.

"Is this justice Kal-El?"

"No…there can never be justice for all the lives you have destroyed."

"You could have known greatness, but you will remain a pawn…"

"Even a pawn can inspire victory…"

"What do you think you have achieved here?"

Clark stared at the android skeleton of Brainiac, thinking for a moment before smiling as he clenched his fists.

"Checkmate…"

With a powerful jab, Clark put his fist through the android's head, watching as it crumbled and fell to the floor before continuing on, catching up to Kara. Flying at full speed, they blasted their way through the outer hull and back into space, watching as four Green Lanterns surrounded the ship, emitting connecting beams of energy from their rings that surrounded the ship to contain the massive explosion as the reactor core in the ship blew apart in a huge fireball, leaving nothing but debris, floating in the darkness of space.

Metropolis

Superman stood on the roof of the Daily Planet, surrounded by members of the Green Lantern Corps and his cousin, Kara Zor-El. Jimmy Olsen captured the moment with his camera as Superman and the Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, shook hands and congratulated each other on their victory against Brainiac.

As the Green Lanterns said their goodbyes and took off into space for parts unknown, Superman turned to his cousin, breathing a sigh of relief and smiling warmly.

"You know, when I was up there, there was a point where I was ready to give up…I thought Brainiac was gonna win…but then I opened my eyes and you were there."

"We're family Kal-El, there was no way I was going to let you fight him alone…but what now? I came here to warn you about Brainiac and now that he's gone, what's left?"

"There's still a world to protect…we will honour the memories of those destroyed by Brainiac, but now we can also look to the future without the shadow of Brainiac hovering over us."

As Superman and Supergirl took off into the air, flying across the city before splitting off to help people on opposite sides of the planet, high above in space, among the debris, a small memory module flickered with life as it floated in orbit above the Earth, while in LexCorp, Lex Luthor watched a small monitor, smiling to himself as a tracking satellite beamed back images of the debris field, focussing in on the module.

"Mercy…contact NASA about sending a shuttle up to repair one of our satellites…I want that module…"


	3. Issue 21

Issue #21 – REVEALED

"Houston this is Krypton, thrusters alignment is go…approaching angle for re-entry…"

"Roger that Krypton…the weather over Metropolis is fine and clear…you are clear to approach."

"Copy that Houston…radio blackout in 5 seconds…see you on the other side…"

"Roger Krypton…come on home…"

It was the first advance prototype shuttle in existence – The Space Shuttle Krypton, named after the home world of the Earth's greatest hero – Superman. It's first mission into space had involved repairing one of Lex Luthor's grid-tracking satellites before docking with the International Space Station and now, 16 days after it's first launch, the shuttle was coming home.

Metropolis:

Clark Kent and Lois Lane walked the streets of Metropolis, hand-in-hand. Their relationship had been the worst kept secret at the Daily Planet since the mystery of who had let the air out of Perry White's car, something that happened during one of Lois' early career tantrums.

"You know Lois, we really should be getting to the landing site. Mr. White is gonna be real mad if we're not there to cover it."

"Relax Clark, it's just a shuttle landing…hardly front page news. Besides Jimmy is there…he'll take the photos, we'll write the article based on that…shuttle lands…yaddy yaddy yadda…etc etc and then we can get back to covering the real stories, like Lex Luthor."

"But we're gonna need interviews with the astronauts and mission commanders…"

"Look, the astronauts are gonna have to be debriefed…it's gonna be hours before we can get anywhere near them. So just calm down ok, we'll get there…"

As they walked past an electronics shop, Lois stopped, noticing a stack of TVs in the window, all tuned into various channels that were covering the shuttle re-entry.

"See…we can watch it here…not a problem…"

Shuttle Krypton:

"All systems are go, heat-shield, holding steady…"

Inside the shuttle, the astronauts were secured in their seats as the shuttle began its re-entry, tilting upwards to protect itself from the intense heat as it passed through the upper atmosphere. It had been an uneventful mission for the most part. The only real friction came when a LexCorp employee, assigned to the shuttle, spent more time outside the shuttle, fixing the satellite, than he was allocated.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly…or as smoothly as it gets when you're trying to land a flying brick, the heat-shield was working fine and the shuttle was on course to land at an airfield just outside Metropolis. But in Metropolis, when things seem perfect, they're usually too good to be true. Suddenly, the shuttle began to rotate in an uncontrolled spin as something large impacted against the right wing.

"What the hell was that?"

"Never mind that, you gotta get control before we burn up…"

"The stick is jammed…I can't get us out of the spin."

"Can we abort…?"

"We're caught in the Earth's gravitational pull…we're going down…unless we blow up first."

Mission Control, Houston:

Although they were in the middle of a radio blackout due to the hazards of attempting re-entry, the commanders at NASA knew that something was wrong. Just seconds after going into the blackout, several objects had appeared on high-altitude radar, and one of them had crashed into the shuttle, sending it off course and into a spin.

"…What are those things? Bring up satellite tracking on sector 2-2-4…"

"What are we looking at…?"

"Meteors…it's a damn meteor shower…"

"Why didn't it show up before?"

"Space is big Jim…issue a general alert for Metropolis…those things are gonna hit."

"What about the shuttle?

"It's in God's hands now…or maybe…"

"Do you think he'll come?"

"He always does. I just hope he isn't on the other side of the world…cuz this definitely looks like a job for Superman."

Metropolis:

Lois and Clark watched a TV through the window of the electronics store, waiting to hear about the shuttle landing. They were anxious moments, NASA had cut the feed a few minutes ago, and now as a reporter came on, Lois could sense a story.

"Something bad is going on Clark…"

"…Ladies and gentlemen we apologise for the loss of picture. A few minutes ago, we received word from officials at NASA that the shuttle had been struck by a meteor. We have no word as to the condition of the shuttle or the astronauts yet but we do know that the meteor was one of many. NASA have issued a general alert to the city of Metropolis. They ask that you clear the streets, if you are in a high-rise building, evacuate the upper levels and make your way down to the basement, or underground car park…anything below street level. Residents should remain in their homes…"

As the reporter continued, Lois was making her way towards a taxi, dragging Clark with her, determined to cover the story. By the time she reached the nearest taxi and opened the door however, she noticed that Clark was backing away.

"Clark come on…where are you going?"

"To find a payphone. Someone needs to tell Jimmy to get to safety."

"It's ok I have a cell phone…"

But Clark was already gone, lost in the crowd of people rushing to safety. Once again, Clark was missing out on the story. Lois wondered for a moment whether she should wait for him, but she knew all too well that once Clark disappeared, that was it…she wouldn't see him again, sometimes for hours. Shrugging her shoulders, Lois climbed into the cab, thinking about another Pulitzer, or possibly a Nobel Prize.

"Hey, I wanna go to Langford Airfield…"

"Are you crazy? Didn't you hear, there's a meteor shower coming, and even if I was insane enough to drive, look around, the whole place is grid locked…this cab ain't going nowhere lady…"

Frustrated, Lois climbed out, watching as every cab on the block switched off their lights, signalling that they were off duty. Her only option was to walk, a thought that made Lois complain to herself that she had worn heels.

Superman flew up from the city, scanning the skies and noticing a meteor making its way towards the city. Rushing after it, Superman slammed through the falling rock before turning and incinerating it. He searched the skies again, this time noticing the shuttle spinning out of control. With a burst of speed, Superman was after it immediately, flying up and away from Metropolis, crashing through falling meteors as he flew.

Upon reaching the shuttle, he peered through the hull, checking that everyone was alright before flying around it, sending gusts of icy cold wind from his lungs to cool down the overheating metal. It was then that he noticed a large piece of rock embedded in the right wing.

Moving swiftly, Superman grabbed on to the wing, pulling the piece of meteorite from the wing, leaving a small hole that threatened to get larger and break the shuttle apart as it spread through the atmosphere. Superman knew he had to think quickly. He stared at the meteorite in his hands, using his x-ray vision to peer through, finding iron in the core. He began breaking through the rock to reach the centre, using his heat vision to start melting the iron, reshaping it and using it to cover the hole in the wing before welding it into place and cooling it swiftly with his breath.

As the shuttle plummeted through the sky at an alarming rate, Superman grabbed on to the tail, slowly steadying the shuttle and bringing it out of its spin before flying ahead and grabbing on to the nose cone, tilting it upwards, knowing that the shuttles descent was too steep and too fast.

Inside, the astronauts could only watch their instruments and look out at Superman as they waited and hoped that Superman would be able to re-align their trajectory. Finally, the captain of the shuttle gave Superman a thumbs up and reached for the controls, lining up with the runway.

"Houston, this is Krypton, do you read?"

"Loud and clear Krypton…what happened?"

"Superman…"

"Copy that…is there anything that guy can't do…"

Lois stood in the streets of Metropolis, the only one not running for cover. Looking up for a moment, she could see Superman chasing after a meteor. She smiled for a moment, taking out her cell phone and taking a picture of him grabbing onto the large rock before it could crash into any buildings in the area. She watched as the Man of Steel threw the meteor out to sea before flying after another. Looking at the picture, Lois had to grin.

"Jimmy Olsen eat your heart out…"

Her smile faded though as she suddenly found herself being dragged backwards, the heels on her shoes breaking as she stumbled, before being thrown against a wall. Recovering, she stood up and found herself looking straight down the barrel of a gun.

"Well, well, well…if it isn't Lois Lane…wow this really is my lucky day."

"Do I know you?"

Holding the gun, a man in tattered clothing that smelled of alcohol smiled back viciously as he aimed the gun at her head.

"No, but I know you…the famous Lois Lane…the woman who writes all the articles about Superman."

"A lot of journalists have written articles about Superman…"

"Ahh but you're the one who gets the exclusives…Lois Lane…Superman's girlfriend."

"First of all, I'm not his girlfriend…"

"Maybe not but everybody knows that you and him have a thing going on."

"I dunno what you're talking about…but if I was his girlfriend…do you really think he would let you hurt me? In fact I bet he's on his way here right now."

"Oh really? Look around you Miss Lane…Metropolis is going to hell. I think he's a little busy right now…"

Superman was indeed busy. One of the larger meteors had crashed into the ocean a few miles off the coast, causing a massive tidal wave to rise up and threaten the city. Wasting no time, Superman rushed ahead of the giant wave, taking a deep breath and blowing fiercely, turning it into a huge wall of ice.

Taking great care, Superman began to lift the ice wall out to sea, melting it gradually before diving underwater, creating a trench for it to flow into to prevent any flooding. As he rose to the surface, he thought he could hear Lois speaking in the distance, but his attention was drawn towards the airfield, where the shuttle had just landed. Another meteor was plummeting through the atmosphere, threatening to crush everyone at the airfield.

He was flying again, having no time to rest as he charged through the sky towards the outskirts of the city, catching the falling ball of rock and fire. Kal-El looked down at the crowd of people, who were cheering and calling his name. He noticed Jimmy Olsen taking a photograph, so he paused, smiling for a moment as he let his friend take his picture before flying away with the meteor, crushing it and breaking into small pieces.

Lois was trying to remain calm, trying to keep the thug talking until she could figure out what to do. She began asking him questions, although she wasn't sure that she really wanted the answers. Every so often she would glance skywards, hoping to see Superman coming to rescue her.

"…Always the reporter right Miss Lane? You want my story? Wanna know what makes me tick? I'm not an idiot…stall the villain until the guy in the cape comes to rescue you...right? Too bad, he ain't coming."

"Uh…no…seriously, it would make a good article…what drives people to such extremes?"

"Nice try Miss Lane…but false sympathy won't get you anywhere, and you're not gonna have the chance to write any more articles…but seeing as you'll be dead soon anyway, I'll humour you. Look at me…do I look like a well respected member of society?"

"Well, maybe if you shaved and bought some new clothes…maybe had a bath…"

"Shut up…I'm sure you remember the first night that freak showed up…it was also the same night I got fired from my job at LexCorp. I'll admit, I wasn't very happy that night, but things were looking up when I found myself a nice piece of tail. She acted like she didn't want it, but I could tell she did. But then that damn Boy Scout showed up and ruined everything…. attempted rape…that's what they locked me up for."

"Sounds like you deserved worse…"

"You know it's not wise anger someone when he has a gun to your face. Of course with our great justice system I was out of jail halfway through my sentence…but I was labelled a sex offender…couldn't get a job, my family wouldn't speak to me…"

"Oh I feel so sorry for you…"

"Spare me the sarcasm Miss Lane…Superman ruined my life…and now I'm gonna ruin his."

Lois backed up against the wall, finding nowhere to run to, she froze as the thug aimed the gun at her, preparing to fire. Her first thought was about Superman, wondering why he wasn't showing up to save the day. But as she tried to talk her way out of the situation, he thoughts turned to Clark, hoping that he was ok, wishing that she could see him.

Superman ignited his heat vision, burning through the last meteor and destroying it, searching the skies to make sure that there weren't anymore. His eyes closed as he listened to voices all over the city, filtering out the sounds of Metropolis, hoping to find Lois.

Finally, he managed to sort through the noise and hear her. She sounded scared though. Superman was unsure what was happening until he heard a sound that was very familiar to him. It was the sound of a bullet being locked into a chamber. He sprang into action immediately, fling across the city, going faster and faster.

Everything seemed to slow down around him as he broke through the sound barrier, still speeding up, not stopping even as he heard the familiar bang of a trigger being pulled and a bullet being sent through the barrel of a gun. He kept going, the world slowing to a standstill as he swooped into the area that Lois was in.

Then he stopped…

Superman had arrived at the alley just in time to see a bullet breaking through her skull and crashing into her brain. He couldn't think as he watched her collapse on the ground. He saw the brief puff of smoke rising from the gun as the thug turned to look at him, laughing.

"Sorry Superman…you're too late…"

Anger threatened to overcome Clark as he flew down, igniting his heat vision and aiming it at the thug's hand, forcing him to drop the gun. The thug tried to run, but Superman was there, catching him and lifting him up, slamming him against the wall.

Superman balled his right hand into a fist, ready to punch straight through the thug, but as he heard footsteps approaching and the sound of police radios, he thought better of it, instead throwing the thug into a nearby dumpster as two police officers ran into the alley.

As one of them ran to the dumpster to arrest the thug, the other approached Superman who was now standing over Lois Lane, scanning her body with his x-ray vision as he tried to hold back his tears.

"Superman…we heard a gunshot…is she…"

"No…I don't know how, but she's alive…barely…"

"I'll call for an ambulance…"

"There's no time…I'll take her myself. Where's the nearest hospital?"

"St. Marks…a few blocks north of here."

Superman didn't respond. Instead he bent down, being careful as he picked Lois up in his arms taking off into the air, constantly listening to Lois' heartbeat. By the time he floated down to the hospital, medical staff were waiting for him, having been alerted by the police to expect him.

After handing Lois over to the doctors, Superman flew up into the air but he didn't go far, instead landing on the roof of the hospital. He stayed there for hours, leaving briefly to stop a robbery at a jewellery store, but for the most part, the city was kept safe by Supergirl as Clark kept a silent vigil.

He stood on the roof, his eyes closed as he listened to the doctors performing surgery. Sometimes he would listen deeper and hear Lois' heartbeat. It dropped a few times, causing Superman to hold his breath, before breathing a sigh of relief as her heart rate came back up. Day turned to night, but still he didn't move. On the street below he saw Perry and Jimmy entering the hospital. He wondered about Lois' sister, her father…they weren't in Metropolis, did they even know that Lois' life was in danger?

He cried. Once the tears started to flow he couldn't seem to stop them. Each tear rolling down his cheek and falling onto the rooftop created a sound that was like a nail being hammered into his head, his sensitive hearing amplifying the sound. Clark hadn't cried this much since the death of his father, Jonathon. By the time he stopped crying, dawn was breaking, the sun was rising over the horizon, replenishing his energy. But he still felt weak.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard someone approaching from behind him. Turning, he saw a nurse, a cigarette in her hand. She turned to leave, but Superman called after her.

"It's alright, you don't have to go."

"I don't wanna disturb you…I mean your Superman…right?"

"Yeah…really it's ok…though you know you really shouldn't smoke…"

"Yeah I know…lung cancer…"

"Well…not yet…" Superman responded following a quick scan of her lungs. The nurse looked at him for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and inhaling another puff of smoke from the cigarette.

"Does anyone know I'm here?"

"A few of the senior staff…but we're keeping quiet about it, so you needn't worry about the press."

"Thank you. Lois…Miss Lane…how is she?"

"I don't know Superman. I can try to find out if you want, though you're welcome to go see her. Visiting hours are over but I'm sure they would let you in."

"No, it's alright…but thank you."

The nurse smiled back at Superman for a moment before putting out her cigarette and heading back inside. When she was gone, Superman stepped off the roof, floating down until he was hovering outside the window of Lois' room. He stayed there for a few moments, watching her sleep, surprised how peaceful and calm she looked, before flying away into the distance.

LexCorp:

Lex Luthor sat in his office, holding a small box in his hands. Across from him, one of the astronauts from the shuttle sat, waiting impatiently as Luthor studied the device.

"This is what you wanted…right sir?"

"Yes…this is everything I've wanted and more…get it down to the lab and tell Hamilton to get the machine ready. I want to begin as soon as possible."

"Yes Mr. Luthor…uh sir…about our arrangement?"

"What about it?"

"Well you said if I did the whole astronaut thing and brought you that box that you would cancel m mothers debt."

"So I did…and I am a man of my word…Mercy, arrange for Mr. Sullivan's mother's debt to be cleared…now then Mr. Sullivan…would you kindly take this down to the lab…I want this ready by the end of the day…"

St. Marks Hospital:

When Clark returned to the hospital, he was wearing his normal clothes, complete with glasses. After being greeted by Perry and Jimmy, Clark made straight for the ward that Lois was on, searching for her room. Peering inside, he saw Lois sitting up, her head was heavily bandaged but otherwise she seemed fine as she smiled and waved at him.

Clark moved towards the door, breathing a sigh of relief as he prepared to enter the room, but he was stopped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw a man in a long white coat, obviously a doctor.

"Hello Doctor…uh, can I help you?"

"Perhaps, are you a relative of Ms. Lane's?"

"I'm her boyfriend, Clark…uh Clark Kent."

"Ok, is there anyone that you know of that we can contact? Family?"

"Uh…her sister is in Paris right now and her father is…well I dunno…he's in the military so he could be in Washington or Afghanistan…I'm sure Mr. White could track them down."

"Mr. White?"

"Oh sorry, uh Perry White, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet. He's down the hall in the waiting area. Is there something wrong Doctor?"

"I'm afraid I can only discuss it with her family…"

"Doctor, please…Lois herself can vouch for me, just tell me what's going on."

"Ok Mr. Kent, but you better sit down."

Clark was getting scared now. Lois seemed to be fine, but as he sat down, he noticed that the doctor looked serious and downbeat.

"Ms. Lane was shot in the head. The fact that she is alive at all is a miracle, but not a long-lasting one. The bullet was lodged in her brain…we managed to remove it, however, the damage the impact of the bullet caused is irreversible."

"Damage? What are you talking about? She looks fine."

"She is…for now…however, due to the nature of the impact, her brain is beginning to deteriorate. Within a few days her speech patterns will begin to become erratic, her motor skills will cease to function…eventually her brain will shut down…she will feel no pain."

"There must be something you can do…"

"I'm afraid not…the best thing we can do is let her go home. Let her be around her friends and family. I'm sorry Mr. Kent."

"Does she know? She looks…well…happy."

"I informed her this morning. It's possible that she is in denial. This is why we are discharging her. It's important that she be comfortable and around the people she cares about when the truth hits her."

After thanking the doctor for being straight with him, Clark entered the room to see Lois smiling back at him. He wasn't sure what to do or what to say. Instead he just kissed her and helped her get ready to go home.

LexCorp:

Lex stood in front of a strange machine, smiling to himself. Everything he had ever desired was within his grasp. He ran his hands over the arm restraints as Dr. Emile Hamilton entered the room, obviously concerned.

"Are you sure about this Lex? The machine hasn't been tested, and the module you gave us hasn't been examined thoroughly enough…what if it's corrupted?"

"Relax Hamilton, you won't get anywhere in life without taking a few risks. I am confident in your ability to make this work…and if it doesn't you'll still be paid if I die so stop worrying."

Hamilton didn't respond, instead focussing on making the machine as safe as possible while Lex looked on, watching his destiny unfold.

Suicide Slums:

As Lois entered Clark's apartment, she was stunned that he lived in such a place. Despite the rough neighbourhood, Clark's apartment was relatively peaceful. There wasn't much there, some furniture, a TV…basic things, but nothing special. Lois had to wonder if Clark was just the type of guy who didn't spend much or whether everything had been stolen.

"Damn Smallville…when Perry told me you lived in the Slums, I thought he meant on the edge or something…not right in the middle. How do you survive here? I mean you're not exactly Mr. Muscle are you…"

"Oh I get by…uh Lois…"

"Ok I know that look…I know what you're gonna say, and I know what the doctor said…I'm not in denial Clark. I should have been dead a long time ago…if it wasn't for Superman I would have been. I just don't wanna spend my last few weeks being all sad and depressed ok…"

"But…"

"No buts Clark…I've accepted what's gonna happen. It's not as if there's anything we can do about it…"

"Well actually…there might be…"

"What?"

"Lois, I need to ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me…and I need you to trust me."

"Alright…"

Clark paused for a moment. He had been thinking about his conversation on the ride home from the hospital, in fact he had been thinking about it since the first time he had ever laid eyes on Lois on his first day at work, when she had been dismissive of him, almost ignoring him. Times had changed though, and even though he was dreading what would happen, he knew it was now or never.

"Lois…if you had to choose between me and Superman…"

"Stop right there Clark…I can't believe you're bringing this up now. Does it even matter anymore?"

"Lois…please…"

Lois could see the sincerity in his eyes, the fear. Something was obviously troubling him and she knew that he deserved a straight answer. Maybe his timing wasn't great, but then Clark never did do things the way people expected.

"Ok Clark…back in that alley, I kept looking to the sky, expecting Superman to swoop down and save me. He's stopped me from crashing in a plane, saved me from Zod, and even stopped a roller coaster from falling on my head. But he did that for everyone. But when I was in that alley, when I knew that there was nothing to save me, everything changed. I wasn't thinking about Superman anymore, I was thinking about you Clark. Superman saved me, but you were the one who stopped me from falling every single day…you were the one who I laughed with, cried with…you were there for me always…I guess I didn't know what I had until you were gone, because when you came back there was no way I was letting you go again…"

Lois stopped, a tear falling down her cheek as she opened herself up to Clark. She wasn't entirely sure what she was saying. The words were just coming out, but Lois knew that she meant every one of them.

"…you asked who I'd choose…but that's not the real question is it…you want to know if I love you. I guess it's taken me so long to admit that I don't need a man in a red cape for me to live that I'd almost forgotten what it means to live. I love you Clark Kent. I don't choose you…there was never a choice…it's you or nobody…ok…I love you."

Lois was crying openly now as she rushed to kiss Clark, things finally catching up with her as she let her fears and doubts go and concentrated on the moment. Finally, Clark pulled away from the kiss, still troubled over something.

"Lois…there's just one more thing…and you might hate me for it…"

"Stop being so overdramatic…don't tell me…you're eyes aren't actually blue…that's why you never take off you r glasses right?"

Lois jabbed Clark playfully, forcing him to laugh as she hugged him before pulling back to look at him.

"Actually…this does have to do with my glasses…have you ever wondered where I run off to when there's trouble…why I never take off my glasses or why this is the first time you've seen where I live? We haven't even slept together. Why do I wear a suit in the middle of summer…have you never asked yourself how it's possible for me to disappear at the same tome Superman died? Or than I came back not long after he did? Why I'm never around when he is? I want you to look at me…I mean really look at me."

"Clark, what are you getting at? A lot of people aren't around when Superman is…it's a big world…just tell me…what are you trying to say?"

Clark sighed to himself, thinking of all the times he had done this in his head, had this very conversation…but this time it was real…the next words to come out of his mouth would change their lives forever. Clark wasn't sure he was ready, but he knew it was time.

"Lois…I'm…I'm Superman…"

After years of saying it to himself over and over, it was finally out, he'd finally told her. Clark watched Lois, afraid of her reaction. Would she forgive him for lying to her? Would she expose him to the world? No, Clark knew she wouldn't do that, but as he waited for Lois to respond, he got a reaction that he wasn't expecting. Lois began to laugh. She laughed harder than she had ever laughed before. Clark was stunned. The confused look on his face wasn't an act. He really didn't know what to make of her reaction.

"Ok…so you're Superman…and I'm Wonder Woman…you know I was wondering why you had never even made a move on me…but damn I didn't know Smallville guys were kinky."

Lois was still laughing as Clark sighed to himself, raising his hands and slowly removing his glasses. Lois' laugh began to fade as she looked at him. At first she couldn't see it but then it hit her as she watched Clark straighten up, standing tall in front of her.

"No…it can't be…"

She was silent now, watching in shock as Clark took off his jacket and opened his shirt, revealing the famous "Superman Shield" underneath. She watched as his clothes seemed to melt together into a cape, his shoes extending up his legs, now red boots.

"This…this is impossible…"

Soon he was standing in front of her, not just as Clark Kent, but as Superman too. Still in shock, Lois struggled to say anything. A thousand questions flashed through her mind, but only one came to the front, begging to be asked first.

"How?"

Superman wasn't sure how to respond. Did she mean how could he be Superman or how could he have lied to her? Despite his strong presence, Clark felt weaker than he had ever been.

"It's difficult to explain…a long story…"

"I'm not going anywhere Clark…Superman…tell me."

LexCorp:

"Are you absolutely sure about this Lex?"

"Yes…now stop asking if I'm sure and activate the damn thing."

Luthor was strapped into the machine and a strange device was placed on his head as Dr. Hamilton injected him with an anaesthetic.

"Just relax Lex, it will be a while before the process is complete. When you wake up, things will feel a lot different."

Clark's Apartment:

They had talked for an hour but Lois still had hundreds of questions. Even as she learned about Jor-El, Clark's life in Smallville and his time as Superman, she struggled to accept it.

"…and that's it Lois. I knew that I had to do something. I had these amazing powers and I knew I had to use them to help the world."

"Ok I understand that, but something doesn't make sense…you died…but you were in Japan…there are medical records...Clark…what do I call you? Clark…Superman…Kal-El?"

"My name is Clark…it really is…just not in public…although you did call me Clerk once…" Clark responded with a soft laugh.

"Ok…Clark…it makes no sense…I mean you can't fake medical records…I went there remember? Bruce Wayne owns that facility…for you to fake being there, he would have to be involved which would mean…. why are you looking at me like that…Bruce Wayne knows?"

"Uh…yeah…"

"But how…you've only met him once…right? I mean the only time you were in Gotham was with me when we interviewed him about Luthor and Batman…wait a sec…I remember…Superman showed up in Gotham that night, in fact you…he…whatever…was seen with Batman…but if you were working with Batman, and Brice Wayne knows who you are then that means that Batman either knows Bruce or…no…Bruce Wayne is Batman?"

"Great…all this time you don't know who I am but you figure out who Batman is in a few seconds…although you weren't exactly supposed to find out…don't tell Bruce ok."

"Sure…secret is safe…but if I find out that Ollie Queen is the Flash I'm gonna kill you…"

They laughed together. Lois still wasn't sure how to handle all the information that had been thrown in her direction. Part of her was glad to be finding out the mysteries behind the glasses of Clark Kent but at the same time she had to wonder…why now? Why did he tell her when she knew she didn't have long to live? Why couldn't he have done it sooner?

"Lois…I'm sorry…I'm sorry for lying to you…can you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive…I understand why you did it, but anyway…technically you didn't lie…I mean I never actually asked you if you were Superman…"

"Hey…that's my line."

"Funny…but I have to know Clark…why now?"

"As Superman, I can't interfere in human progression…I can't give the world technology or power…the human race has to advance on it's own…but at the same time, I can't lose you Lois…I won't."

"What do you mean? You can't stop the inevitable Clark."

"If I had been there just one second sooner...just one second…I could have stopped the bullet…it's my fault."

"If you had gotten there sooner, you would have never told me who you really are. I would rather spend a week with all of you, than a lifetime with just a part of you."

"But that doesn't have to be the case…I can help you Lois…I can save you…there is a place…it's up north, under the ice…a Fortress of Solitude…the technology exists there to help you."

"But you just said you can't interfere…you can't share technology."

"Superman…Kal-El can't interfere…but I'm also Clark Kent. My body may not be human but my heart is."

"But you can't choose me over the rest of the world Clark."

"No, Superman can't…but I can…Clark can…"

"But you are Superman…"

"Not today…"

LexCorp:

Lights flashed as surges of energy flowed through Lex Luthor's body, focussing around his head as information form the memory module was downloaded into his brain. As the final bit of data entered his brain, the machine shut down and soon Lex's eyes were opening. Looking around he saw Dr. Hamilton standing next to him.

"Did it work?"

"Well you're still alive, so that's a plus. It will take time for your mind to process and store everything. Relax…the anaesthetic hasn't worn off yet so I suggest you get some rest."

Luthor didn't bother replying, his eyes already closing as he drifted off into a deep sleep. Soon he was dreaming of a thousand different worlds, all focussed on one thing…power.

Fortress of Solitude:

Lois stared in awe at the magnificent structure under the ice. She had never seen anything like it before. As Clark worked on setting up a medical unit, Lois stood at a control panel with Supergirl, learning a little bit about Kryptonian technology.

"This control panel is used for maintaining the Fortress itself. For example, this crystal here activates a radiation filter, while that one can be used to raise the Fortress to the surface in an emergency."

"Wow…this is really…over m head."

"Not surprising…the human brain hasn't advanced enough to understand the depths of our technology."

"Kara…don't insult our guest." Superman called out as he overheard their conversation. Lois couldn't help but laugh, while Supergirl tried to apologise.

"I am sorry…sometimes I focus on the human race having much to learn but forget that you have great potential though I am still uncertain as to how Kal-El can stand a lot of your customs…they seem strange to me."

"It's alright…Clark told me that you're cousins…you're from Krypton?"

"No, I was born on a space colony called Argo…it was destroyed by an entity called Brainiac though. Kal-El and I are the last of our race…excluding Zod."

"Yeah, he said the whole Green Lantern lightshow was Brainiac too…I notice that you don't call him Clark."

"I have tried…he wishes me to, but Kal-El is the name I have known since I was a child, it is what I am accustomed to."

Lois and Kara talked for a few minutes more before Clark informed them that the medical unit was ready. Lois was apprehensive at first but she trusted in Clark. Lying down on the cool, crystal surface, Lois closed her eyes as she was put to sleep by the control system around her brain. The medical unit started scanning her brain, delivering a holographic image a few feet above the medical unit.

"Kara…don't tell Mom about this ok…I think she would have a heart attack if she knew I had told someone who I am…especially a reporter. I'd like to tell her myself."

"Of course Kal-El…though I still do not understand the logic of this…she is but one human, yet you have always said we must use our powers to serve all of humanity."

"There is no logic Kara…I love her, it's as simple as that."

Kara didn't respond, instead choosing to just nod her head as she began working with her cousin to repair the damage to Lois' brain. It was a long slow process as the alien machine worked to fix each individual cell that made up the damaged areas.

When Lois opened her eyes, she felt no different. Looking around, she saw Supergirl hovering at the other end of the Fortress, practicing her powers. Clark however, was by Lois' side, holding her hand.

"How do you feel?"

"Alright…how long was I out?"

"A few hours…"

Lois put her hand to her head, checking for any scars…the bandages that had been put on by the doctor had been removed, but she couldn't feel any scarring or bruising.

"Did it work?"

"Yes…you may feel a little dizzy when you stand at first but that will wear off in moments."

"So I guess you're stuck with me then." Lois joked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way Lois."

LexCorp:

Violent images flashed in front of him, a world exploding…billions of strange beings screaming in terror…suns collapsing. Lex Luthor awoke suddenly, memories of his dream still vivid in his mind. He was in a hospital bed. He recognised it immediately as the medical facility at LexCorp.

Dr. Hamilton was there, going over some notes and checking Luthor's vital signs. He approached Luthor slowly, shining a small light in his eyes, apparently checking his vision.

"Well?"

"You tell me Lex…is there anything new? Can you remember anything? What do you know?

Lex closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Visions, memories…data flashing in front of him as he recalled events from across the galaxy, technologies that were alien to him, races that were beyond exotic. Lex stared at Dr. Hamilton and smiled.

I know…everything…"

As Lois and Clark began again with newfound honesty and openness, Lex Luthor began his learning about his own change, combining the knowledge he had gained with his lust for power. He sat in his office, reading the paper. There were three stories on the front page. The first was about the meteor shower, the second about a woman named Eileen Sullivan who had apparently been killed by her son, an astronaut, who in turned killed himself and the third was about the shooting of Lois Lane. Allowing himself to smile for a moment, Lex focussed on the second and third stories. It may have seemed like just another day but Lex knew that he was ready to proceed with the final stage of his plan...


	4. Issue 22

Issue #22 – ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE

LexCorp:

It was a busy day at LexCorp. The final countdown for the activation of the worldwide grid had begun, and Lex Luthor was preparing a speech to give to 6 billion people across the planet. He sat at his desk, memorising the words he had written, a glass of water and a couple of painkillers beside him.

"Biggest day of my life and along comes a damn headache."

"Mr. Luthor…Lex…are you sure you can do this? The world can wait a while longer to hear from Lex Luthor…" Mercy Graves asked as she sat across from him, concerned for her employer.

"Nonsense Mercy, nothing will keep me from enjoying this day. Is my suit ready?"

"Yes Mr. Luthor, it has been designed to meet your specifications, but surely there is no need to put it on today…"

"One must always look his best Mercy, especially when destiny awaits."

Moments later, Lex was receiving a message from his secretary, informing him that the time was drawing near. Lex allowed himself a brief smile. The world would fall at his feet and then…then they would crumble into dust.

1938 Sullivan Lane:

"You know Lois, you could help…"

"Why? You're the one with the super strength remember? Besides, you're the one who's moving not me…I'm…supervising."

Lois watched as Clark seemed to struggle with the heavy boxes as he lifted them through the door to his new home. The reality of course, was that Clark could have lifted them with ease, but he knew he couldn't risk showing his super strength in public and there was also a part of him that enjoyed doing things 'the human way.'

It was a new beginning for Clark. His cousin, Kara had decided to live at the Fortress, wanting to use the technology there to search for possible survivors from Krypton and Argo as well as other colonies that she hoped had survived Brainiac's extermination of their race. It had given Clark a chance to move up in the world, after a little push from Lois and now he was moving into a new place.

Things had been strange between Lois and Clark. They had become closer following Clark's revelation about his identity, but Lois couldn't help but feel a little jealous every time her boyfriend flew off to save someone, but she knew that it came with the territory. Clark would tell her that he understood, that it was ok for her to have those feelings but Lois still felt guilty.

As Clark dropped the last box on the floor of his new home, he went to the front door and closed it. Turning, he smiled briefly at Lois before taking off at speed, removing items from their boxes and placing them where he wanted them in record time.

Lois watched as the cardboard boxes gradually emptied, the contents filling up the rooms and in no time at all, as Clark dropped out of super speed, everything was unpacked and in its rightful place.

"I used to do this all the time back home, but Dad would always say – Son, you have great powers…but it's not about how fast you can get the job done, it's about taking the time to do it right…and he wasn't wrong, there's something satisfying about doing things like everyone else…but sometimes it's nice to just cut loose, especially when it gives us more time to do…other things."

Walking across the room, Clark lifted Lois off her feet and kissed her. For Clark, things had never been better. The threat of Brainiac was gone, Lois knew and accepted who he really was…it was a new beginning, the next chapter in the life of Clark Kent.

LexCorp:

Lex Luthor placed an aspirin in his mouth, taking a drink of water and swallowing. He was in the middle of the most important day of his life, yet his thoughts were concentrated solely on the headache that had been plaguing him all day. His behaviour had been erratic lately. Dr. Hamilton had put it down to the strain of the download of information from Brainiac's memory module into his brain.

But as he sat in the control room, screen displaying satellite link ups to the United Nations, showing images that would be broadcast across the planet, he forgot about the pain. The final systems check had come back positive, everything was ready.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the United Nations, and those watching around the world. I'll keep this brief…I've already made my speeches so with your permission, let's flip the switch…"

Lex waited, watching the screen as delegates of the United Nations voted, until finally, the Secretary-General appeared on the screen, talking directly to Luthor.

"Mr. Luthor, we have voted unanimously in favour of activation…you may proceed…good luck."

"Luck is for the delusional…final check is complete, we are go for activation."

The control room was buzzing as engineers monitored the grid, calling out numbers and watching maps on screen as the kryptonite core underneath LexCorp glowed brightly, releasing pure energy.

"I wan progress updates…"

"Yes Mr. Luthor…core is stable and at 100 capacity, conversion emitters are functioning well within safety parameters…we ready to switch over sir…"

Lex nodded to the engineer and soon the giant map overhead began to light up, showing national grids across the planet switching circuits to the LexCorp relays.

"…East Coast…West Coast…Australia…Ireland…France…China…Russia…Central European…"

Lex listened as the engineer confirmed that the grids across the world were now operating through LexCorp. It had been the largest project ever attempted by human beings. Costing billions of dollars, connecting the entire planet to one international grid had seemed impossible, but as the final power relays switched over, the delegates at the United Nations were applauding and cheering.

Every power station on the planet was now drawing energy from the kryptonite core at LexCorp, but as engineers congratulated themselves on a job well done, Lex Luthor sat in the centre of the control room, his head in his hands as he struggled to fight off the pain he was feeling until he was snapped out of it by the Secretary-General of the UN.

"Mr. Luthor…congratulations…this is a great day for us all. Well done."

"Thank you…but do not celebrate yet. First we have to make sure that there are no problems."

Luthor looked around the room, then up at Mercy Graves who had stood by his side throughout. He saw faces. Employees overjoyed that the project was proving to be a success. Then it changed. The joyous faces turned into visions of despair. His mind played out events from a hundred different worlds in turmoil. He felt the agony of billions of strange alien beings crying out in horror.

"…Lex…Lex can you hear me…Lex…"

Luthor opened his eyes to see Mercy crouching down beside him. He was on the floor, dazed for a moment as he tried to stand. He knew everything that Brainiac knew…the AI's memories and experiences now existed within his mind.

"What happened?"

"You passed out…are you alright?"

"I'm fine…I saw…it doesn't matter."

As Lex sat back up in his chair, he looked around the room again. Some had noticed that he had collapsed but they knew better than to stare at their boss and continued monitoring the grid. Lex had total recall now, he could easily remember and understand things that no human being could even fathom. Turning to Mercy, he smiled, knowing the time had come to implement the final stage of his plan…or was it Brainiac's plan? Lex didn't care…he wanted power and he was determined to get it.

"Mercy…clear the room and get the UN back online…this grid was designed by Brainiac. Apparently he…he believed that it would allow him to infect every electronics system on the planet…"

"Is that even possible?"

"Let's find out…"

As Mercy cleared the control room of all personnel, Lex opened a compartment on the armrest of his chair, revealing a small control panel, just as the UN General Assembly appeared on a screen in front of him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to report that the grid is working perfectly…however we do have a small problem…I'm too greedy. This grid is under my control and at this very moment I am using it to infect military installations across the planet. I can launch every missile, nuclear or otherwise at the touch of a button. Power stations can be remotely set to overload…one simple command and the world will be plunged into chaos…you can avoid this by handing control of this world over to me."

"That's not funny Luthor…"

"I'm not joking…"

Luthor's hand moved to the control panel, entering a command. Soon, the United Nations building along with the rest of New York was without power. Delegates at the UN began arguing amongst themselves, debating what to do. Lex wasn't about to wait for an answer though. Restoring power to the United Nations, he made one final threat.

"The world is about to witness hell ladies and gentlemen…the chaos will end when you stop debating and hand power over to me."

Lex cut the transmission and began inputting commands into the control panel. In silo's form Colorado to Moscow, missiles began launch countdowns, aimed at random targets across the globe. Power stations began to overload, hospitals lost power, relying on back-up generators.

In Japan, electric trains began to speed up, moving at speeds far beyond safety parameters, major cities around the world suffered total power losses, citing riots as people began taking to the streets, looting and fighting.

Traffic lights shut down, causing car pile-ups, prison cells opened, releasing the most violent criminals imaginable. The only place that didn't seem to be affected was Metropolis.

Sullivan Lane:

Clark watched the TV as reports began coming in from across the planet. He had to act. Changing quickly into his familiar blue suit, Clark kissed Lois briefly before flying out through the window and up into the air.

Lois sat back, her eyes now glued to the television. The reporters didn't seem to have any idea why the world was in chaos and as more news came in about the events happening across the planet, she feared that Clark would be overwhelmed.

High above, in the upper atmosphere, Superman hovered, listening to cries from across the planet. He was soon joined by his cousin who had been monitoring the situation at the Fortress.

"Kal-El…what are we going to do? There is no way we can help everybody, there's too much…"

"Calm down Kara…we're not alone in this. There are protectors…heroes all across the planet…but there are things that only we can help with. We must deal with the most urgent emergencies first."

"But…but how do I choose where to go and what to ignore?"

"Have faith in humanity. Their various emergency services can handle most problems…we deal with the rest…now go, we have to hurry."

Japan:

Travelling over 300mph, the JR-Maglev train was operating well within safety parameters, but when Luthor tapped into the new remote access system, it began to move at even greater speeds…400…500…the train began to shake uncontrollably as it roared along the track.

Commuters on the train huddled in their seats, panicking as the train moved faster and faster, threatening to fly straight off the track. Moving alongside the train, Superman analysed the situation, knowing that forcing it to stop suddenly could kill the passengers.

Spinning underneath, Superman began studying the power relays that gave the track its electromagnetic charge, going to find a way to disconnect the power. Finding the right cables, he tore them apart, shutting down the magnetic field. However the train had used the field to hover just above the track and now, without power, it was grinding along, threatening to flip over.

Quickly moving to the front of the train, Superman began to push back on it, trying to gradually stop its momentum and slow it down. The passengers cheered as Superman exerted more strength, finally bringing the train to a grinding halt at the next platform.

England:

Sellafield had been one of the nuclear stations that was to serve as a relay for the energy output from LexCorp, and after switching to the grid, engineers were beginning to shutdown the reactor.

Supergirl arrived on the scene however to find that the reactor was in fact set to overload after Luthor had taken control. Ensuring that everyone had evacuated the facility, she made her way towards the reactor, entering the core, hoping to shut it down manually.

When she got there however, Kara found that it was too late to shut it down. Thinking quickly, Supergirl raced outside, severing the connection between the facility and the main grid before tunnelling underground. Onlookers felt the ground begin to shake and watched on, amazed as the nuclear plant broke from its foundations and began to rise into the air.

Underneath, Supergirl had her arms raised, balancing the facility on her palms as she flew into the air, going higher and higher, the pull of gravity not effecting her as she flew out into space, throwing the large building away from the planet, watching as it finally reached critical and exploded.

Sydney:

A bright flash of light in the horizon that lit up the night sky. A nuclear missile had plunged into the ocean and exploded. Now, as Superman stood on the beach, in the distance he could see a massive tidal wave approaching, having been created by the blast.

After taking a deep breath, Superman began to blow into the water, stirring up hurricane-force winds, as the tides seem to flow backwards. The water level was rising and Superman was now speeding along the beach, building up a wall of sand.

Clark knew he didn't have much time as the tidal wave got closer and closer to the city. His eyes burned as he released an intense blast of heat along the sand-wall, turning it to glass before summoning up strength and smashing straight through it.

The shockwave created another giant wave, this time heading out to sea. Superman followed behind it, blowing in the water, forcing the wave to get bigger and bigger as it travelled on a collision course with the first wave, until they finally impacted together, the wave created by Superman consuming the first wave before eventually settling until the waters were calm again.

Swiss Alps:

A cruise missile crashed into the mountainside, causing an avalanche of snow and rock, sliding down the mountain and building momentum, threatening to crush the small ski-resort below. The impact of the missile had also caused the cable cars to stop working and now, as the snow rolled down the slopes, a group of snowboarders, trapped in one of the cars, high above the ground, prayed for a miracle as the cable started to tear itself apart.

Supergirl flew up the mountain, igniting her heat vision and turning the snow to water, and then steam, before blowing it back up the slopes. Her ears picked up the sound of a cable snapping and she turned to see the car plummeting towards jagged rocks on the mountainside.

Acting quickly, Kara flew at speed, grabbing the cable car and slowing its rate of descent before letting it down gently while she used her heat vision to incinerate any pieces of rock falling down the mountain.

New Zealand:

The lights were out. High above Wellington, planes circled in darkness, running low on fuel. There was nothing to guide them in, no runway lights, no beacons to signal where the airport even was. Pilots had considered landing on the freeway, but every light within a hundred miles was out. They couldn't see anything below them.

Warning sounds flashed, indicating that the fuel in one of the planes was going o run out. Some of them were now flying on just two engines to conserve fuel but it was clear that this tactic wouldn't last long.

Suddenly, something flew past one of the jets, a shadow in the darkness that was about to light up the sky. Superman was there, his enhanced vision enabling him to see through the darkness.

He began flying over the airport, igniting his heat vision along the tarmac, creating long lines of fire over each runway, giving the pilots something to see to help them land.

As the planes touched down one by one, Superman prepared to leave, only to pick up the sound of an engine failing. Looking behind him, he saw one of the planes, obviously out of fuel, beginning to fall out of the sky.

He acted immediately, flying underneath the plane and grabbing the nosecone, trying desperately to slow it down and keep it steady, being careful not to use too much force. Adjusting his weight, Superman tilted the plane until it was resting on the runway.

The Amazon:

The native tribes deep in the Amazon jungle didn't know what was happening in the outside world. All they knew was that a huge fire was spreading, burning down trees and killing the local wildlife. All they could do was run, while high above, emergency helicopters flew in, dropping water, hoping to put out the flames.

As the fire raged, the wind carried it further and increasing the danger, not only to the tribes within the jungle, but to the towns and cities on the outskirts, it seemed that not even al the water in the Amazon river would be enough to stop it.

Descending like an angel from the skies above, Supergirl began flying around the jungle at breakneck speed, creating strong gusts of wind to put out the fore as the people below cheered in amazement.

Emptying out a silo at the edge of the jungle, Kara flew towards the river, filling it with water to pour on the flames, not leaving until she was sure that the danger had passed.

New York:

Two missiles had been launched, one heading towards San Francisco, the other heading towards New York. Superman had crossed paths with his cousin and while she flew to catch up with the missile in California, Superman sped through the atmosphere, making his way into the city just in time to see the missile crash into the spire of the Empire State Building, only to keep going, threatening to blow up in the street.

Faced with an impossible choice, Superman struggled for a moment, trying to decide whether to catch the falling spire or to chase after the missile. The choice was taken away from him though as he saw a familiar face flying towards the Empire State Building.

Wonder Woman was there, her hands grabbing the spire and lifting it back up towards the top of the building, allowing Superman to fly after the missile, twisting underneath it and pushing it out to sea. After watching it explode, Superman returned to the Empire State Building, welding the spire back into place with his heat vision as Wonder Woman held it steady.

"This is crazy…it just won't stop. Central City's power went out and if it wasn't for the Flash, the whole state would have erupted in a mass riot, there's two Green Lanterns flying around and even they can't seem to get things under control. We stop one disaster then another one springs up."

"We have to keep going Diana, it's who we are, what we do…we need to stay strong until we can figure out the source of all this."

"The source? Try LexCorp. I was at the UN when the grid went online…then Lex Luthor started making demands and all hell broke loose."

"Luthor? I should have known…but are you sure?"

"I'm the ambassador for Themyscira Superman, and although my sisters and I declined Luthor's offer of establishing a relay station on the island, I still had to be at the UN for the activation."

Superman thought for a moment. He knew Lex Luthor had an insatiable lust for power, but he never thought that Luthor would cause Armageddon to get it.

"Diana listen to me…you're strong, don't give up. I'm going to Metropolis to shut down the grid and stop Luthor."

"It's alright, a squadron of fighters are on their way their right now to destroy the LexCorp building."

"What? Lex may not be innocent, but there are a lot of civilians in and around LexCorp that could get hurt."

"I'm sorry Superman, but it's the only way. If we don't stop him now, millions could die."

Metropolis:

Lex Luthor owned many buildings in Metropolis, each dedicated to the various projects in development by the company. Each building also had its own defence system, controlled by the central hub at the LexCorp headquarters in the heart of the city.

Each weapons platform was not targeting the fighters approaching the city. Bullets flew through the air, slicing through the metal hulls of the attack planes, forcing the pilots to eject as the fighters exploded in the air.

The people of Metropolis ran in fear, trying to get off the streets as burning debris rained down on top of them. Sidewinder missiles rocketed through the city, approaching the LexCorp building only to be shot down by the air defence installation on the roof of the building.

As the remaining fighters flew out of their city, forced to retreat under a sustained barrage of fire, Lex Luthor watched from his office, knowing that there was one thing left to take care of before he could be sure of victory. The pain he was feeling had grown worse throughout the day, but he refused to let it overcome him even as he struggled to think in agony.

Mercy Graves entered the room, concerned for her employer. It wasn't like Lex to declare war against the entire planet, it was a bold move and one that seemed to be paying off, but Mercy knew that it wasn't Luthor's style to attack directly. But Lex was her boss and she knew better than to question him.

"Lex…you should go down to the infirmary and get your head checked out."

"I don't have time for that Mercy…get the suit."

"The suit? Sir, it hasn't been tested yet, we don't know if there are any faults."

"Don't argue with me Mercy. I know my own technology. Besides…he's coming."

"Who…Superman? Are you sure?"

"Oh yes…the blue boy will fly here to stop me…and I will destroy him."

As Mercy left, Luthor poured some water into a glass, drinking it as he swallowed a couple of painkillers. Outside, fire fighters struggled to put out the fires caused by the exploding fighter jets, unaware that Superman was on his way, determined to stop the destruction and chaos once and for all.

San Francisco:

The second missile had impacted against the Golden Gate Bridge. Support cables snapped, cars were hanging on the edge of the bridge, threatening to fall into the river below as passengers, afraid for their lives tried to escape without making the cars tip over.

Supergirl arrived on the scene, flying low under the bridge, rising up and pushing the cars back onto the bridge. Cables, stretched to their limits, broke apart, forcing the bridge to tilt over as cars and buses began to slide dangerously towards the edge.

Studying the layout of the bridge, Kara began flying from one end to the other, lifting the loose cables and welding them back into place with her heat vision. As she flew back and forth, lifting up the metal cables, Kara noticed a small truck on the other side of the bridge falling over the edge.

She moved at super speed, dropping under the bridge and flying just above the water as she stretched out her arms, catching the truck just before it plunged into the river. Inside, the driver breathed a sigh of relief as Supergirl carried the truck up into the air, laying it down in the centre of the bridge.

Metropolis:

Superman entered the city, dropping out of super sonic speed, slowing down as he landed hard on the roof of LexCorp. Staring back at him, Lex Luthor stood confidently, covered in strange metallic armour.

"Welcome Superman, have you come to stop me?"

"It's over Lex…you need to shut the grid down before more people get hurt."

Lex didn't respond, instead choosing to laugh as he walked to the ledge and looked down on the city below. Contemplating the situation for a moment, Lex grinned as he turned back to Superman, walking to face him. They stood face to face, staring at each other for a moment before Lex struck out with a strong punch to Superman's chest.

Kal-El found himself flying backwards off the roof, clutching his chest in pain. Taking control, Superman stopped moving backwards and landed back down on the roof, taken aback by Luthor's apparent strength.

"Surprised? This suit gives me strength comparable to yours. It increases my agility and speed…and it delivers a few other surprises. I've been waiting for this day Superman."

"You don't have the technology…"

"No but Brainiac did."

"Lex what have you done?"

"I have become a whole lot smarter. When you destroyed Brainiac's ship, all that was left among the debris was a small memory module containing his program. Everything he knew was downloaded into my brain…to put it simply…I am a god."

"Gods are immortal Lex…and you're not. You're insane. What did you think would happen when decided to hold the world to ransom?"

"The line between insanity and genius is a thin one. The world will resist…but not for long…now are we done with the clichéd banter…can I kill you know."

"You can try…"

Lex Luthor activated a switch on the wrist of his armoured-suit, causing it to extend over the top of his head before charging at Superman, throwing a quick punch towards the Man of steel's face.

Superman ducked and twisted his body, bringing his own fist around to strike a powerful blow to Luthor's side, forcing him back, sliding along the rooftop. Small jets in Luthor's boots ignited, sending him into the air, with Superman taking off and following behind.

They circled each other, extending their arms and punching viciously as they hovered above LexCorp. Superman swung hard only to find Luthor tilting his head to avoid being hit, spinning his body around and kicking Superman in the chest, sending him tumbling through the air, crashing against a nearby skyscraper.

Adjusting his body, Superman took off again, charging into Lex, grabbing a hold of him and throwing him back down to the LexCorp roof. Looking up, Lex saw his enemy dropping down at speed and narrowly managed to roll out of the way and stand up as Superman's knee slammed against the roof, causing the entire building to shake.

As Superman stood up, he found himself having to quickly dodge as a beam of energy streaked across the rooftop. Looking up, Kal-El noticed a small weapon on Lex's arm, raising up from Lex's suit.

"What are you…Robocop?"

Lex laughed as he fired another blast forcing Superman to roll out of the way again before retaliating with a blast of heat vision, melting away the mounted weapon, forcing Lex to tear it off.

"Damn fool, do you think I need that weapon to defeat you?"

Lex charged the rocket jets on his boots and raced across the roof, pushing into Superman with his fists extended, knocking the Man of Steel off his feet. As Superman tried to stand he found his strength draining away from him. Looking up, he saw Lex standing over him, a small green rock in his hand.

"Kryptonite…"

"Sorry Superman, as much as I'd like to have a good battle with you and destroy you piece by piece, I know better than to keep this going longer than necessary. That's the thing with "bad guys," they go up against you, have the chance to destroy, only to waste time talking and punching…but I'm quite happy to shove this kryptonite down your throat and just let you die."

Overcome by pain, Superman tried to get to his feet only to fall back down as Luthor stood over him, holding the kryptonite close to his face. Lex began grazing the rock over Superman's face, cutting him and forcing blood to run down over his eyes.

Confident that his enemy was sufficiently weakened, Lex balled his hand into a fist, preparing to deliver a final blow. Superman meanwhile, was struggling to see past the pain as he tried to find a strength within himself to summon up enough power to fight back.

Through the agony, Superman's ears picked up the sound of something approaching the city at speed. Managing to turn his head, he saw his cousin flying towards him, her harms extended as she charged at Lex and drove him across the rooftop.

Smiling, Lex opened up a small chamber in his left arm and placed the kryptonite inside. With a quick flick of the wrist, the armour acted as a projectile weapon, releasing the kryptonite like a bullet, sending it across the roof, smashing against Kara's chest.

Stunned, Kara fell backwards off the roof, crashing into the street below, lying unconscious as Lex moved back to Superman, looking to destroy him before he could recover. Worried about his cousin and consumed with anger, Superman grabbed a hold of Lex's fist as it came down to strike him.

Holding onto Lex's hand, crushing the armour, Superman stood up and delivered a fierce uppercut, sending Luthor skywards. Superman followed Lex into the air, catching him and diving back down towards the roof.

Superman held onto Lex, slamming him through the roof, into the building. Refusing to let go, Kal-El drove Lex straight down through the building, crashing through floor after floor, 60 storeys down below ground level, crashing down underneath the car park before emerging in the chamber that housed the grids kryptonite core.

Lex struggled to stand up, his body feeling the pain through the armoured suit. Looking up, he could see the blue skies high above through the large hole that now broke through each floor of the building.

Meanwhile, Superman was standing in front of him, forcing himself to calm down as he watched Lex stand up for a moment then collapse again.

"It's over Lex…it's time to shut it down."

Luthor looked up at Superman and began to laugh. Standing up slowly, his menacing laugh was enough to send chills through Superman who didn't know what to make of what was going on. Then as quickly as Lex had started laughing, he stopped, replacing it with an agonising scream as the pain he had been feeling all day overcame him.

He held on to his hest as he roared in pain, struggling to maintain his identity as the stabbing pain threatened to overcome him. He fell back down on his knees, still screaming.

"Lex…what's wrong?"

Superman didn't know what to think about what was happening as Lex yelled in terror, his eyes were glazed over, the sound coming from his mouth suddenly stopping as he stood up slowly in silence.

"Lex?"

Luthor's eyes were closed for a moment. When they opened, they seemed lifeless. There was no sense of expression in his face as he stared at Superman.

"Hello Kal-El…"

His voice had no emotion, it was cold, lifeless. Superman was unsure of what was happening but as Luthor stood upright, his eyes not moving, focussed on his enemy.

"You thought you had destroyed me, but thanks to Luthor, my mission will continue. Like Krypton, this world will be destroyed, it's knowledge downloaded. Then I shall move to the next world…you could have become part of my quest, but now you will die, along with all others."

"It can't be…Brainiac…?"

"You finally see. Lex thought he could suppress my program. He was wrong. This body is inefficient, this suit is crude…badly designed. Nevertheless it will suffice."

Shocked, Superman couldn't react as Luthor charged at him and punched him against the rear wall, picking him up and driving his fist into the Caped Wonder's side, cracking his ribs.

"Lex…Lex snap out of it…fight him…"

"Lex Luthor is dead. I am Brainiac."

Brainiac existed now in Luthor's body, using the advanced combat suit to hurt Superman, punching him and throwing him against the lead chamber that housed the kryptonite core.

Brainiac's threw another hard punch, only for Superman to dodge. The punch from Brainiac ended up striking the lead chamber, rupturing it, opening cracks, letting the radiation seep through.

Once again, Superman found himself struggling to stand as the kryptonite radiation began to spread around the room as Brainiac launched another attack, connecting with a powerful uppercut that sent Superman back across the room, crashing against the wall, falling down in pain.

As Brainiac walked towards Superman, the Man of Steel noticed power cables coming from the reactor. Knowing that he didn't have much time before the radiation overcame him, he ignited his heat vision, burning through the cables slicing them in two. Noticing Superman's actions, Brainiac laughed as he picked him up by his throat, slamming him against the wall.

"Fool…did you really think that severing the cables would shut down the reactor? Living among these humans has obviously lowered your intelligence."

"You know you're right. I'm not as smart as you but you forget, you're in a human body…which means that you can feel pain."

Superman kicked out at Brainiac, striking him squarely between his legs, forcing Brainiac to let go of Kal-El's throat and cry out in agony. Not wasting anytime, Superman grabbed Brainiac and flew with him across the room, sliding along the floor until they were next to the severed power cables. Brainiac retaliated with a strong punch, rolling on top of him, trying to choke the life out of Superman.

Kal-El didn't bother trying to force Brainiac off, instead concentrating on stretching his hands to grab onto the live cables, grabbing a hold of them and forcing them up, holding them against Brainiac's head.

Electricity passed from the cables through the mind of Brainiac and the body of Lex Luthor. Brainiac shook violently as the electricity fried his brain and he collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

Superman stood up, out of breath as the kryptonite radiation continued to seep slowly through the cracks in the lead chamber. His strength was fading but he knew he had to keep going.

His fingers burned as he punched through the lead chamber, getting a strong grip and pulling it from its foundations, tearing through the cables as he lifted the core up through the building and into the air, rising through the atmosphere, trying not to pass out as he flew into space and threw the core off into the distance.

His eyes burned as he let out a stream of heat energy, forcing the kryptonite reactor to explode. The shockwave sent kryptonite energy back towards Superman, impacting against him, sending him falling back towards the planet below.

As he fell through the atmosphere, his body began to slowly recover as light from the sun penetrated his cells. He fell towards Metropolis, his eyes opening as he felt his strength return, twisting around and landing feet first in the middle of the city.

Superman ran through the city, finding Kara lying on the ground as a concerned crowd gathered around. Picking her up, Superman flew with his cousin into the air heading north out of the city.

"Kal-El…is…is it over…?"

"Yes Kara, it's over…rest now…you're going to be alright."

Fortress of Solitude – 2 days later:

"…The world is getting back to normal today after the chaotic events started by former LexCorp president, Lex Luthor, who remains in hospital today after a public battle against Superman…in related news, the United Nations is set to honour the many heroes around the world who not only stopped numerous disasters but are now helping with the re-construction process…"

Lois Lane turned off the monitor and walked towards Clark, who was helping his cousin refit the ship that had brought her to Earth. It had been a stressful time but things were slowly getting back to normal.

"Now let me get this straight, Brainiac took control of Lex Luthor's body?"

"That's right Lois, it's hard to believe."

"Is he…"

"Dead? No. But he's in a coma. The doctors say he may never wake up."

Lois pondered the situation as Clark turned to his cousin, concerned about what she was preparing to do. She had been living at the Fortress, using it's advanced trackers to search for deep space signals and before Luthor plunged the world into chaos, she had found a faint energy signature of Kryptonian origin.

"Are you sure about this Kara? You can't go out there alone…something could happen, you could get hurt."

"Kal-El the signal is real. It may be from Krypton, broadcast a thousand years ago…but what if it's not? There are colonies out there and we don't know if Brainiac destroyed them all. There may be survivors…our people may still live, somewhere…"

"It's too dangerous Kara…"

"Kal-El…Clark…you taught me everything I need to know about how to live, how to survive...I'll be ok, and if there are others out there, I'll find them."

Knowing he couldn't talk her out of it, Clark hugged his cousin before activating the control panel that opened the roof of the Fortress to allow the ship to pass through the ice.

"Be careful Kara…and if you get into trouble, turn that ship around and come on home."

"Don't worry Clark, we'll see each other again…thank you for everything…and Lois, take care of him."

"I will Kara, good luck…"

Kara smiled as the main hatched of her ship closed down around her while she set the controls to launch the ship. With a mighty blast, the Kryptonian ship took off, rising from the Fortress as Lois and Clark, protected from the rocket fire by a crystal absorption shield, looked on.

As the ship reached escape velocity and exploded out of the atmosphere and into space, Kara looked around, shedding a tear as the Earth faded from view, before activating the energy repulsors and blasting off into deep space, through a wormhole.

On Earth, Lois nudged Clark and kissed him softly, reassuring him as they prepared to fly back to Metropolis.

"She'll be alright Clark…she's Supergirl."

"I know Lois…I know…come on, let's go home."


	5. Issue 23

Issue #23 – THE CRIMINAL MIND

Cork, Ireland:

High above the city of Cork, the 96FM traffic copter made its rounds, reporting on traffic conditions as local people drove to work. It wasn't the finest of days, in fact weather reports were suggesting that a storm was brewing, making travel even more treacherous as wind and rain coupled with heavy cloud cover darkened the skies.

"…traffic is backed up all across Blackpool from the by-pass onwards thanks to a toppled telephone pole near the shopping centre, and that's the morning traffic report on 96FM…are we off the air? Good…"

As the pilot turned the helicopter around, the reporter looked out onto the city below, feeling the helicopter begin to shake as it moved against the wind. She had never been comfortable with heights and she couldn't wait to get her feet back on the ground.

"Derek, get this thing back down to earth as soon as possible, these winds are really starting to pick up."

"Hey don't worry, this thing can handle a bit of turbulence no problem."

"Well unless you want me throwing up all over the controls, you'd better land this thing soon."

"Alright, alright…" the pilot couldn't help but laugh as he saw the reporter struggling not to gag. Calmly, he positioned the helicopter on a course for the landing pad as the skies around him began to get darker.

He though he had noticed a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, but he dismissed it until he began to hear a loud rumbling sound a few seconds later…thunder. As the helicopter flew through the air, another flash of light brightened up the sky briefly, followed by more thunder…this time the delay was even shorter.

Then another streak of lightning flashed…not across the sky though, straight down, striking the helicopter, blowing apart the tail and shortening out the controls. The reporter screamed as the helicopter began a spiralling free-fall, plummeting towards the streets below.

Superman was there, flying at speed into the city, his eyes focussed on the falling helicopter. His mouth opened as he let out a strong gust of air, his super breath targeting the tail of the chopper, putting out the flames.

He followed the falling object, twisting down between the blades, grabbing onto the front of the helicopter, slowing its rate of descent before touching down gently as an admiring crowd looked on and cheered.

After checking that both the pilot and his passenger were alright, Superman took off again, flying high up into the air and out into space, circling the planet as he listened closely, picking up sounds from everywhere, filtering them out and focussing on the most urgent ones.

Breaking the sound barrier as he flew, he found himself high up in the mountainous roads of the Swiss Alps, catching a car that had slid along the icy path and crashed over the edge. From there he flew to New Zealand, stopping a massive tsunami in its tracks before heading up along Asia, crossing into Russia to put out a fire that threatened to destroy an entire gas pipeline.

There were no super-powered villains to fight, no world-threatening plots to foil, there was just Superman doing what he did best, flying around the world and saving the day.

Metropolis:

"…get that sample down to the lab…I want the OR prepped and ready…I'm sorry Mr. Millar, we tried everything but we couldn't save your son…"

He heard voices…they were everywhere…male, female…some rejoicing, some in despair…and a strange beeping sound that seemed very near. His eyes opened…

Lex Luthor sat up in his bed and looked around. He was in a hospital. Nurses ran past his room, obviously in a rush…nobody seemed to be paying attention to him. Carefully removing the leads from his chest, Luthor got out of bed and stood up. For a moment it seemed like he had forgotten how to walk as he struggled to keep from collapsing. It had obviously been a while since he had used his legs.

Picking up the chart at the end of the bed, Lex read through it, realising that he had been in a coma for weeks. He tried to remember…unsuccessfully at first, but after a few moments images began flashing in front of his eyes. Superman…kryptonite…Brainiac…soon he had remembered everything that had happened.

Lex knew he had to leave…checking outside his room, he saw a police officer at the other end of the corridor, talking to one of the nurses. Waiting until he was sure he wouldn't be spotted, Lex ran to the door leading to the stairwell, travelling down to the floor below where he found some clothes in a storage room.

Luthor covered his face as he made his way outside the hospital, walking swiftly towards a sewer entrance and climbing down. As Lex traversed the stinking sewers, leading to a subway access tunnel, he thought about everything that had happened. He had retained Brainiac's knowledge but he could no longer sense the AI's presence within him. By the time Lex had run across the subway tacks and entered a secret underground facility that he had built as a safe house years ago, he had one thing on his mind…Superman.

Sullivan Lane:

Like a gust of wind, Superman flew home, moving faster than the eye could see as he floated through an open window, touching down gently. Removing his cape, he watched as it split into three pieces, making up a jacket, a shirt and a pair of trousers as his boots descended down his legs, reforming as a normal pair of shoes.

Carrying his clothes to the bedroom, he noticed Lois Lane, who was lying peacefully. Although they weren't officially living together, Lois had spent more time with Clark than she had in her own apartment in recent weeks.

As Clark sat down on the bed next to Lois, watching her sleeping, he held a small black box in his hand. Sighing to himself, as he nervously pondered how to ask the most important question that would ever cross his mind, Clark put the box away, hiding it in a small pocket in his Kryptonian-made suit just as Lois opened her eyes.

"C…Clark…what time is it?"

"Just after 7…"

Lois sat up immediately, wide awake as she looked through the window and saw the sun shining down on the street outside.

"Why didn't you wake me? Perry's gonna have a stroke if I'm late again…and the same goes for you."

"We're not going to work today Lois…I called Perry last night and he agreed to give us both the day off."

"That doesn't sound like Perry…what did you do? Bribe him? Or do you have other powers I should know about…like some super Jedi Mind-Trick or something? Or did you spin the world backwards and change history so that Perry isn't always grumpy?"

"No," Clark laughed, " I just asked politely…you know it's amazing what can happen when you're polite to your boss."

"Sorry Smallville…it's just not my style…"

"Speaking of Smallville…you up for a road trip?"

Lois stared at Clark, wondering just what he was up to. Before she could respond though, Clark was gone in a blinding flash. Looking over to the closet, she saw that the clothes he had just hung up had disappeared. It was something that happened a lot in their relationship. Lois would be talking, Clark would pick up the sound of someone in trouble and then he would be gone, off to save the day.

Deep underground, Lex Luthor waited and watched monitors on the walls, showing images picked up by the cameras in the tunnel outside the safe house. Just as he was getting impatient, he noticed someone walking down the tunnel towards the large metal door that blocked the entrance to the facility.

Mercy Graves opened the door and stepped inside, a little confused as she spotted Lex Luthor sitting in his chair, staring back at her.

"Mercy…it's about time you got here…now let's discuss my company's future."

"You don't have a company Lex, after your global domination scheme failed, your shares in LexCorp went to me. Your ego and your criminal ,mentality left a stain Lex, stocks plummeted, deals collapsed…the only thing I could do was sell off the individual departments."

"You chopped up and sold my company?"

"LexCorp is dead. It died when you tried to take over the world…don't feel too bad though, you've still got your offshore account. If you can get out of the country before the FBI find you, you might live long enough to enjoy your retirement…assuming the Boy Scout doesn't catch up with you of course."

Lex pondered the situation for a moment. He wasn't really mad at Mercy for selling the company, in fact he was a little surprised that she was smart enough to sell off LexCorp's assets. His life as a businessman was over. Lex knew he had two choices, become a criminal or retire with the millions he had stashed away in various offshore accounts.

He would need to leave the country. Before he could though, Lex had one last thing he wanted to take care of. .

"Did everything go as planned?"

"Yes Lex, I retrieved the memory core from Metallo's internal systems," Mercy responded as she handed Lex a small memory storage card.

"And my team?"

"In Las Vegas, waiting for you to contact them though personally, I wouldn't put my faith in mercenaries."

"Well that's not your problem."

"I know. I'm done Lex…I'm walking out that door and never coming back. I thought that…I thought maybe that coma might have knocked some sense into you…but you'll never give up will you…it will always be about Superman. Well it's over for me. I trust the funds have been wired to my account?"

"Ten million…you've earned it."

After a brief phone call to her bank manager to confirm that the money had been transferred, Mercy turned and walked towards the door, ready to leave Lex Luthor behind and go find a new life. She had loved him once, she had waited for Lex to overcome his obsession with the Man of Steel, but slowly, she had begun to realise that a life with Lex Luthor was no life at all.

"There's a private jet at the airport that will take you wherever you want to go…goodbye Lex."

As Mercy walked out of his life, Lex didn't seem to care. His mind was focussed on one thing, revenge.

Hyper Sector:

The tall modern buildings of Metropolis had seen their fair share of action over the years, especially since Superman arrived on the scene. Today was no different. People were running for cover as bullets flew through the air. After an attempted armed robbery, the three robbers were now engaged in a fierce shootout with the police.

Wearing body armour and firing assault weapons, the thugs arrogantly walked from the bank they had robbed, firing at police cars and laughing as exploded, sending flaming debris everywhere.

The police retaliated with shots of their own, only to find that their bullets wouldn't penetrate the robbers armour. Hundreds of empty shell casings littered the ground as the shootout continued. Cops fell to the ground in agony as bullets pierced their skin, while the robbers casually walked towards a waiting car.

Papers began to swirl around, fires that had been raging due to the exploding cars caused by the heavy gunfire were put out as strong gusts of wind blew through the street. Looking up, the robbers cowered in fear as Superman floated above them, his arms crossed and is long red cape dropping down behind him as he descended, touching down between the police and the thugs.

"You guys must be new in town…" Superman said, grinning confidently. He never could understand why people still tried to commit crimes in Metropolis. While he couldn't be everywhere at once and would miss the occasional purse snatching, it was never in doubt that he would show up to stop a massive shootout that was being broadcast across the country.

"Surely you guys must have known that I'd show up…so why even bother? Did you think I'd take the day off?"

Desperate to escape, the thugs opened fire, sending a spray of armour-piercing bullets directly at Superman only to find them crashing against his chest, falling harmlessly to the floor. Kal-El responded with his heat vision, heating up one of the weapons, forcing the thug to drop it.

The second thug, having emptied the clip, held onto the barrel of his rifle and swung it as hard as he could. The gun connected with Superman's face and shattered. Grabbing a hold of the two thugs, he threw them high into the air as the third thug tried to escape.

He ran, looking back for a moment to see that Superman had disappeared. Turning back around, hoping to get away, he ran straight into Superman, who grabbed his gun, bending it and snapping it in two, before lifting the thug and flying with him back to the police who had been involved in the shootout.

"Is everyone alright here?"

"Yes, thank you Superman, these guys never learn do they?"

"Afraid not…excuse me for a moment."

Flying skywards, Superman caught the two robbers that he had thrown into the air, catching them as they fell back to earth, gradually slowing and touching down, letting the police take them away and arrest them.

As the robbers were handcuffed and lead away, they looked up and cursed as they watched Superman take off and fly into the distance. He flew high above the city, ascending through the clouds, his cape stretched out behind him as he broke through the sound barrier, moving into the planet's upper atmosphere and beyond.

Floating silently now, he looked down on the world below, listening for signs of trouble. It was something he did a lot. Sometimes though, he valued the eerie quietness of space, shutting out everything coming from the planet so he could concentrate on his own thoughts.

Lifting his head, Superman looked for the position of the sun, using it to assess the time, using the earth itself as a sundial. He descended rapidly, creating a sonic boom as he dropped out of the sky, back towards Metropolis. It was still morning, and Clark knew he was going to have a busy day…he was preparing himself for a confrontation far more dangerous than any of his battles against Doomsday or Brainiac. He was taking Lois to meet his mother.

Nevada:

Sergeants Siegel and Shuster stood watch at the entrance to a military base that had no real purpose. Area 51 was nothing more than a dump, a place that held some of the militaries old planes and vehicles that had been put out of commission as newer, better technologies had been created. Relics of the Second World War filled the large hammers. At least that was the official records said.

There had been many conspiracy theories over the years, suggesting that area 51 was a facility designed specifically to experiment with alien technology. Many thought that after Superman's first appearance on earth, the government would come clean about their knowledge of alien life and reveal what was in Area 51. But that never happened.

The truth, was that the government had no prior knowledge of alien life before Superman, there was no Roswell space ship, no alien bodies. Area 51 was a site dedicated to secret research in advanced man-made technology, there was nothing alien about it. That all changed when Superman revealed himself to the world.

As the two sergeants conversed, they failed to see a rocket-propelled grenade fly towards their command station. They had no time to react as it exploded, killing them. Alarms sounded, soldiers rallied to defend the base, coming under heavy fire. Cluster bombs descended on the main hangers, devastating the buildings, forcing them to collapse and crush anyone inside.

An armoured, all-terrain truck crashed through the gates leading to the main complex, before coming to a halt and letting 6 mercenaries exit and begin firing on the military personnel.

Meanwhile, another dozen mercenaries accompanied Lex Luthor to an elevator. Forcing the doors open, the group attached their equipment to the heavy cables and descended down the elevator shaft, all the way to the bottom, hundreds of feet underground.

Opening the doors, one of the mercs tossed a grenade into the corridor, waiting as it exploded, killing the soldier. Through the smoke, bullets impacted against everything from flesh to concrete as another firefight broke out between the soldiers and the mercenaries while Lex Luthor waited in the elevator shaft for the all-clear signal.

Finally, Luthor was escorted down the narrow corridor, stepping over bodies, avoiding the blood that was turning the white floor to a crimson red. At the end of the corridor, there were two doors. One led to the main facility while the other lead to another corridor, filled with prison cells.

Choosing the second door, Lex walked to the end , passing some of Earth's most notorious criminals, noted for4 the special powers they possessed. Stopping for a moment, Luthor noticed the creature known as Parasite, a being that had tried to absorb Luthor's life force and kill him years before, only to be stopped, ironically enough, by Superman.

The last cell was the one that Luthor was interested in. Inside, a man with long hair and a beard, his body weak, sat in silence, looking at a television screen. He was hardly someone who could be considered a threat. Looking over the mans shoulder, Luthor saw what the man was watching.

"The Godfather…interesting film, though in the third film, he repents…then again, most people don't really count the third."

Looking up, the man stared at Luthor, his face gradually showing signs that he recognised the former head of LexCorp.

"Luthor?"

"Hello Zod…"

On the surface, a helicopter approached the base, firing rockets at the jet fighters that were stationed on the ground, preventing the pilots from using them. From the last remaining hanger, a tank crashed through the door, blasting the mercenaries with heavy rounds from its main gun as well as tracking and targeting the helicopter, trying to shoot it down.

The 6 mercenaries who had remained on the surface were joined by 5 more, who had come back up from the underground complex. They were now trying to draw the tanks fire away from the helicopter, attacking soldiers as well as civilian personnel.

The body count was rising rapidly as the merc laid waste to everyone who opposed them. Rockets from the helicopter impacted against the heavily armoured, titanium-plated tank, causing no more than a few slight dents.

"What do you want Luthor? As you can see, I have television here…I know of your failure…Kal-El defeated you, as he did me. Human beings…pathetic.

"I'm not the one locked in a cell Zod. I'm here to set you free…to give you one last chance to destroy Superman."

Anger overcame Zod as he thought about his enemy. They had fought an epic battle in Metropolis and around the world. They had been evenly matched but ultimately, Kal-El had outsmarted Zod. Now he had the chance to change things and make Kal-El suffer. He stared at Luthor for a moment and smiled menacingly.

As the battle raged on the surface, the mercs found themselves pinned down, under heavy fire from the tank. The helicopter had been forced to retreat to a safe distance and wait. And now they were on their own.

Luthor and Zod emerged from the elevator shaft and Zod immediately began to feel stronger as the sun's rays descended upon him. Basking in the sunlight for a moment. As his strength returned, Zod looked at the tank and ignited his heat vision.

At first , the blasts of heat did little to affect the tank that was made of a material that could easily resist the intense heat. Gradually though, as Zod got stronger, his heat vision gained more potency and began to cut through the tank. Taking a deep breath, Zod unleashed a powerful blowing wind that launched the tank into the air.

Taking off, Zod flew after it, grabbing a hold of the main gun, swinging the tank and sending it crashing back down to the desert floor before blasting it with an even hotter stream of heat energy from his eyes, watching as the tank exploded.

With the tank destroyed, the helicopter was free to fly back towards the base, landing safely, waiting as Zod, Luthor and the mercenaries approached. Looking around, Luthor counted how many mercs had survived the battle and then looked back at the helicopter before turning to Zod.

"It seems we have a little problem…too many passengers, not enough seats."

Understanding, Zod stared at the mercenaries, his eyes burning as he unleashed a powerful blast of fire, disintegrating the mercenaries, burning through flesh until they were nothing but piles of ash.

As Luthor boarded the helicopter, Zod paused for a moment, looking up at the sky and clenching his fists, feeling the power that he had lost, now restored. In a fit of rage, Zod flew into the air, wanting the whole world to hear him.

"YOU WILL BOW DOWN BEFORE ME KAL-EL…YOU WILL BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!!!"

Kansas:

Lois and Clark sat, watching the scenery go by as the train rumbled along the track, bringing them to Smallville. Clark could have flown them both there, but he decided he wanted to do things the human way, mostly just to give himself time to prepare for what was going to happen.

While he had told his mother about Lois, he hadn't told her that Lois knew who he really was. He had tried a few times, but it never seemed like the right time. Lana had offered to tell her, but Clark knew it was something he had to do himself.

As the train pulled into Smallville's modest train station, Clark took a deep breath before stepping off with Lois. He looked around but there was no sign of Martha. Lana was there though. It was a relief to have a familiar and friendly face there to greet him.

"Lana hey…Lois, this is Lana…Lana meet Lois…"

"Ahh so this is the famous Lois Lane…Clark's always talking about you, it's great to finally meet you."

Clark smiled, happy that Lois and Lana seemed to be getting along pretty well. As they walked to Lana's car though, Clark realised that not only would he have to figure out how to tell his mother that Lois knew about him, but now he'd have to listen, to his girlfriend and his high school sweetheart talk about their respective relationships with him, revealing all the intimate details to each other on the car ride to the farm. As that thought entered his head, Clark found himself wishing that he were fighting Doomsday instead.

Metropolis:

Former Kryptonian General, Dru-Zod, paced back and forth impatiently as Lex Luthor searched the internet, as well as personal files, for information relating to Superman.

"Luthor, I have been to his Fortress of Solitude and you say that you found its location from Metallo's memory core. So why are we here in this disgusting infested sewer? I shall fly to the Fortress and destroy him."

"You already tried that once Zod…and you failed. This time we do things my way. Look, to destroy him…we must exploit his true weakness…not kryptonite, his compassion…his family."

"Family? They died on Krypton."

"No…his Earth family."

Zod looked at Luthor, obviously confused. It was something Lex had thought about since awakening from his coma. Something that had never occurred to him before. What if Superman and an identity that was separate to the one the world knew? What if he had been living among humans, instead of just flying over them? Zod, despite his attitude towards the human race, had to admit that he was impressed as Luthor set about working it out.

"What do we know about Superman? He shows up all over the world…but he doesn't stop every disaster. A lot of the time he seems to disappear. He doesn't always show up…so what does he do when he's not saving the day?"

"Perhaps he remains at his Fortress…"

"See I thought of that…but he shows up in Metropolis more often than anywhere else. In fact he seems to get to areas in Metropolis a lot faster than anywhere else in the world…why?"

"Because he resides here?" Zod wondered.

"Exactly…he lives in Metropolis. But then the question arises, how does he know about things that happen on the other side of the planet? The news…someone like Superman is going to have to be at a place where he can learn about events as they happen."

"Like one of your news broadcasts?"

"Like CNN? No…although he is a reporter…if he worked behind the scenes, he couldn't come and go as he pleased…but a reporter can always leave to follow a story. He's not on radio or TV though…he would need to go on air at a moments notice if there was a breaking story…and Superman doesn't have time for that…which leaves newspapers and it just so happens that the Daily Planet is famous for its stories about Superman…"

Bringing up the website for the Daily Planet, Lex began looking at profile pictures, comparing them with a picture of Superman, as well as reading through information about the various male reporters at the newspaper, trying to find a match, while Zod pondered the situation.

"But none of this means he has a family Luthor…he is Kryptonian, not human."

"Think about it…Krypton was destroyed when he was a child right? Could he have raised himself? I'm sure your people had the technology that would help take care of a child who's alone on Earth…but if that was what happened…he would act superior to humans…his compassion, his loyalty and love for the human race doesn't come from a computer…he must have lived with humans…grown up with them…he also doesn't wear a mask. So nobody is going to be looking for a secret identity. His mask is the face he wears when he's not flying around as Superman…wait a minute…"

Lex sat back in his chair and smiled as he looked at the picture in front of him. It was only a 70 match…but it was enough to convince Lex. To make sure, he placed the picture of Superman over the picture that was now up on the screen.

"Clark Kent…started working at the Planet a couple of weeks before Superman showed up…when Superman died, he disappeared and returned just a few weeks after the blue boy….raised in Smallville, Kansas…according to this he was adopted…his age matches Kal-El's…currently in a long-term relation ship with Lois Lane…who happens to be the reporter who gets all the exclusives on Superman for the Planet…I think we have a winner."

Looking at each other, Zod and Luthor both knew that they had found who they were looking for. For a moment, Luthor wondered if he should go public and reveal Kent's secret to the world. But he thought better of it…for Lex it was personal…he wanted to destroy the Man of Steel and this was his chance to do that.

"Tell me Zod, have you ever been to Smallville? Because I think it's time we paid a visit to good old Ma Kent…"


	6. Issue 24

Issue #24 – TROUBLES OF THE HEART

Smallville:

As Lana's car pulled away from the farm, Lois' eyes travelled, surveying the place where the world's greatest hero had grown up. While the Fortress of Solitude had a grand, superior feel to it, the Kent farm was more grounded, a simple place that resembled many other farms in the Midwest although a lot of them had shut down in recent years.

Lois gazed upon the windmill, turning slowly as a shallow breeze blew past. She saw fields filled with growing corn that seemed to go on for miles, fading out over the horizon. Near the farmhouse she noticed the barn that Clark had told her about, the place where the Kents had hidden his ship for years. It didn't seem like a place where Superman, the most extraordinary being on the planet, would have grown up. Despite everything Clark had told her, Lois still expected to see something far grander. The Kent farm though, was surprisingly normal.

On the porch, Martha Kent looked out at her son and the woman he had brought with him. She wondered about Lois Lane. While Clark had never been happier, Martha couldn't help but worry that Lois, a reporter like her son, would seek to exploit Clark or expose his secret to the world if she ever found out.

Before Clark had left for Metropolis to begin his new life as Superman, he had told Lana Lang, but that was different. Clark and Lana had grown up together and Martha knew her very well. She knew that Lana wouldn't reveal his secret. She wasn't so sure about Lois though. But she knew that it wasn't fair to judge someone she had never met, and Clark seemed to trust her, so Martha decided to give Lois the benefit of the doubt, smiling and waving as the two reporters approached the house.

"Clark, welcome home," Martha said cheerfully as she hugged her son, "and you must be Lois…"

"Lois Lane, that's me…Martha right? This is a nice house…I bet you could get a lot of money if you sold this place…not too sure about the corn though, seems a bit clichéd. Still it has its charm…now I know where Clark gets his dorky side."

Lois smiled, looking at Martha, then at Clark. Both of them had a bemused look about them and for a moment, Lois wondered why they were looking at her like she was a celebrity who had just checked herself out of rehab to score another hit. By the time Lois' mind caught up with her mouth, she realised that she was rambling and quickly spoke up, attempting to apologise.

"Sorry…nerves…I tend to get pushy when I'm nervous, then again I get pushy when I'm mad…also when I haven't had my coffee…you know I'm pretty much always like this, I suppose you can blame my father for that…military type…a General actually, big on discipline…though after years of babysitting my sister I suppose I've become the rebel and…"

"Lois…" Clark interrupted, laughing nervously as he worried what his mother would think of Lois' rambling.

"What…oh I'm doing it again aren't I…sometimes I wonder how your son puts up with me…but anyway, you have a lovely home here, kinda reminds me of the Walton's or Little House on the Prairie…very warm and friendly…kinda like Clark I suppose…uh…I called you Martha didn't I…sorry…uh Mrs. Kent…"

"It's alright, call me Martha…everyone else does." Martha didn't know whether to laugh or to have Lois committed. She certainly wasn't the shy, girl next-door type that Lana was. But maybe she was exactly what Clark needed. After all, being the most powerful man in the world, he would need a strong woman to put him in his place. Martha chuckled to herself before giving Lois a brief, welcoming hug and turning back towards the house.

"Well come on you two, lets get inside…Lois, there's fresh cup of coffee with your name on it coming right up."

Martha smiled, walking back into the house, followed by Lois, needing her caffeine fix. Clark though, put his hand on her shoulder gently, signalling her to stop for a moment.

"Lois…are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm fine…just nerves…once I get some coffee in my system I'll be right as rain…is rain right? What does that mean?"

"Lois."

"Sorry…deep breath…and relax, ok Clark, I'm ready."

As they walked into the house, Clark began to wonder if it had been a good idea to bring Lois after all.

Metropolis:

Deep underground, Lex and Zod travelled through an old LexCorp access tunnel to another safe house a few miles outside the city. This one was different than the last. Inside, a dozen screens, all connected to a central computer system lit up, showing various images, from security feeds from the tunnel, as well as surveillance footage of a nearby military base.

"What are we doing here Luthor? You promised me the son of Jor-El."

"Yes, I did…and you will have your chance to destroy him…but first, we need a plan. When you went up against him before, you destroyed half the city and still lost."

"What's your point?"

"To defeat Superman, we must take what he values most…the people most precious to him. To do that, we must give him a distraction…we're going to Smallville…therefore we must ensure that he's on the other side of the country…otherwise he will just show up and defeat you again."

Clenching his fists, Zod moved to respond and refute Luthor's claims that Kal-El would beat him, but deep down, he knew that the former head of LexCorp was right. Zod would have to play Luthor's game and be patient.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Double jeopardy…he can't be in two places at once…so we give him something…a mission to save millions of lives. While he's doing that, we make our move…after your fight with Superman, LexCorp was contracted to create a new advanced nuclear missile to combat any future threats from Krypton…as well as having a failsafe in case Superman himself turned rogue. The warhead is laced with kryptonite and while we were only able to complete one before LexCorp went bust and the contract was given to someone else, fortunately, that sole missile still exists and is resting at a silo a few miles from here."

"You plan to use it?"

"Yes…while the president is the only man with the nuclear arming codes, I secretly installed an override during construction that will allow me to take control and target…let's say…Los Angeles."

"Kal-El may survive…"

"You're right of course…he has a habit of saving the day and I'm sure he'll find a way to stop the missile but it will give us enough time to proceed with the next stage of the plan…and if he should die…well it's win-win."

Lex smiled as he sat down in front of the largest screen, his fingers moving as he typed a code on the keyboard that granted him access through the backdoor of the military base's central systems. Meanwhile, Zod stood behind him, secretly hoping that Kal-El would survive the missile attack on Los Angeles, wanting to destroy Superman himself.

Smallville:

The T.V. was on in the corner, although the volume had been muted. Lois, Clark and Martha sat around the kitchen table, unsure of what to say. It was an awkward silence. Lois was sipping from her mug, the coffee doing little to stop her nervous shaking. She had confronted some of the worst criminals on the planet in her time as a reporter, faced danger that most people couldn't fathom and she had done it with confidence. But nothing could prepare her for the meeting with her boyfriend's mother. Martha wasn't just any woman though, she was the mother of Superman. It was Martha who finally broke the silence, asking the most routine of questions.

"So, did you guys have a good trip?"

"It was ok, I suppose we could have flown here but Clark wanted to take the train." Lois replied as she continued to sip her coffee.

"Yeah well the train station is a lot closer than the airport, and Clark doesn't really like to fly." Martha responded. Lois hadn't meant flying by plane. She was talking about flying as Superman. Perhaps Martha had misunderstood, or maybe…could it be possible that Clark's own mother didn't know who he was? No, that wasn't possible. Besides, Clark had told Lois that his mother knew all about his exploits as the Man of Steel.

They were silent again. It definitely wasn't going how Clark had planned it. Then again, nothing ever did. He as going to have to take matters into his own hands and get a conversation going.

"Uh, Mom, Lois is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist."

"Really? Well I've read your work…a lot of interesting stuff about Superman."

"He's the reason I still have a job. Clark could obviously just write the articles himself but I think he lets me go to the editor first with a story a lot of the time."

"Well Clark is a great reporter himself, but Lois, from what I've read, you seem to be in the thick of things quite a lot, you really shouldn't put yourself in danger like that."

"It's the nature of the job…although I suppose I do risk my life more often than most other reporters. Then again, when you've got Superman looking out for you, the risk is greatly reduced."

"But Superman looks out for everybody Lois. You can't expect him to save you all the time."

"I suppose your right…I guess I take him for granted. That's what happens when…well you know."

Martha didn't know though. She didn't know that Lois knew the identity of Superman. Clark had never told her. He had tried to a few times but he always got nervous, afraid how his mother would react. Martha opened her mouth to respond and ask Lois what she meant, but she stopped, noticing that her son was distracted, looking away from the conversation, concentrating on something else.

"Clark, what is it? What's wrong?" Martha asked, causing Lois to also look at Clark, wondering what was going on.

"Turn the T.V. up Mom." Clark answered as he stared at the television in the corner. Grabbing the remote control, Martha raised the volume, allowing herself and Lois to hear what Clark had been hearing though his sensitive ears.

"…top story once again. Lex Luthor, who earlier today escaped the hospital where he had been under 24-hour guard in Metropolis, has issued a threat towards the city of Los Angeles. We have received a video recording, apparently sent to us by Luthor, with instructions to play it every 10 minutes for Superman to hear and we shall do that now…"

Clark watched, stunned as Lex Luthor appeared on the screen, sporting a menacing grin.

"…This is Lex Luthor…I assume you can hear this Superman. Millions of people are depending on you. At this moment, a nuclear missile is on its way to Los Angeles…call it a parting gift. I only hope that with your great speed, you will be able to stop it in time. You may be wondering why I've warned you…I'm just a nice guy…besides, it's no fun killing millions of innocent people if you're not there to witness it. So long Superman…"

Clark stood up, his hand reaching for his tie as he prepared to change and appear as the hero, Superman. Lois sat silently and Martha, looking at her son then back at Lois, realised she needed to give him an excuse to leave.

"Clark, why don't you go into town and get us a bottle of wine…I think we could all use a drink right now and…"

"Wine?" Lois interrupted. "Shouldn't Clark be going after the missile?"

Seeing the look on his mother's face, Clark suddenly remembered that she didn't know that Lois knew who he was. He knew he needed to explain things but he didn't have time to chat.

"Uh Mom…umm…Lois knows….I gotta go…"

Then he was gone, leaving Lois and Martha stunned, staring at each other for a moment, neither one of them finding it easy to find the words to describe what they were thinking.

"He uh…never told you?" Lois asked.

"No…he didn't. But I suppose that's just the way Clark is."

"Tell me about it."

Superman headed west, flying at breakneck speed towards California, his eyes focussing miles ahead of him, searching for the missile. Without know where the missile was coming from though, it was impossible to determine the where in Los Angeles it would strike and Superman knew he would have to concentrate with all of his senses if he hoped to catch it in time.

He began turning south, heading straight for LA, and his arms pulling back behind him as he broke through the sound barrier and beyond. Anyone on the ground below would see a blue blur…assuming they could see anything at all.

As he raced across he country, Superman continued to allow his eyes to focus miles ahead of him, like a hawk spying on its prey. His telescopic vision picked up something in the distance around ten miles ahead of him.

Picking up even more speed, Superman flashed across the sky, catching up with the object in seconds. He'd gotten lucky. The object was indeed the missile he had been chasing. Flying to the nose. He stretched out his hands to force the missile to come to a stop, fighting against the rocket that was propelling it forward.

Superman began to weaken, feeling his strength draining as he struggled to hold onto the missile…scanning inside with his x-ray vision, he saw the root of the problem. A large quantity of refined kryptonite had been inserted and implemented into the warhead's design. He fell out of the sky, crashing hard into ground below, creating a crater in someone's back garden, remaining unconscious as his body tried to absorb solar energy and destroy the kryptonite radiation that had penetrated his cells.

Back in Smallville, Lois and Martha sat, facing each other as news reports began coming in that the military had begun tracking the rogue missile. Both women were confident however, that Superman would save the day.

"So…how long have you known?" Martha asked as she poured coffee into Lois' mug.

"Quite a while now…he told me just before his cousin left Earth."

"Kara…hold on, he told you? You didn't find out on your own?"

"No…it's surprising…I've worked alongside him for so long yet I never really suspected anything…thinking about it now, I have no idea how a pair of glasses is able to fool the world…it's gotta be the worst disguise ever…but it works."

"Don't remind me," Martha laughed, "when I first saw him in those glasses, with the hair and the three-piece suit, I thought he was an intruder breaking into the house."

Both women laughed. The ice had been broken and they were enjoying each other's company, revealing secrets they knew about Clark's life, knowing that they would be a great source of embarrassment for the Kryptonian if he had been there.

"So was he always strong?" Lois asked, curious about Clark's powers and how he handled them, growing up on the farm.

"When he was a baby, when we first found him, his powers would come in flashes. Jonathon and I had some bruises from his tantrum days but it wasn't really his fault. It wasn't until he was a teenager that he really began to take control and develop his powers."

As they talked, Lois noticed something flying towards the house as she glanced out the window for a moment. Reacting, Lois pushed Martha to the floor and fell down herself, ducking for cover as a tractor came crashing through the wall, into the kitchen, flying over their heads, smashing through the living room and out into the driveway.

Raising her head, Lois looked out through the massive hole that now linked the kitchen with the farm outside, spotting two familiar figures. Helping Martha to her feet, she tried to drag Clark's mother away to escape, but in a flash, Zod was there, preventing them from leaving. Lois and Martha backed away slowly, turning and coming face to face with Lex Luthor.

"Hello again Miss Lane…and you must be Martha Kent…well it's a real pleasure to meet the mother of Superman."

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Save it Lois!" Luthor responded, "I know Clark's little secret. Oh don't worry, I'm not going to expose him…I've got something else in mind."

Luthor laughed, angering Lois who lashed out at him with a strong slap to his face. Lex replied with a punch to her ribs before grabbing her by her hair and throwing her to the ground before turning and smiling at Martha.

"I must say Mrs. Kent, you have a nice home here. Now I see where Superman gets his high moral values…you've raised him well…unfortunately, you're going to be visiting his grave pretty soon."

Martha felt hands wrap around her throat. Her feet were off the ground, her lungs struggling to take in air as Zod squeezed her throat. Luthor watched as Martha's face showed the pain she was feeling. He enjoyed the moment, grinning before raising his hand and signalling for Zod to release her. As she fell to the ground, trying desperately to breathe, she prayed silently, hoping that her son would return as Zod and Luthor conversed.

"Would it not destroy Kal-El's heart if I killed this woman?"

"Sure it would. But somebody has to deliver the message right? Besides, Miss Lane here will provide enough heartache to bring him to his knees."

"And he will bow…"

"My son will never bow before you…I know who you are Zod…he will defeat you," Martha retorted angrily. Zod ignored her as his eyes travelled around the farm, looking at where his enemy had grown up.

"This place annoys me."

"Then by all means, destroy it…burn this place to the ground…" Luthor responded as he kicked Lois in the stomach and began to tie her up.

Zod focussed, releasing a heated blast from his eyes, aiming at the house, before sending another powerful surge of heat energy towards the barn, using his superbreath to topple the windmill. Finally, he turned, igniting his heat vision once more and incinerating the crops growing in the cornfields that surrounded the farm.

Martha could only watch as the flames consumed the farm around her. Luthor approached her, bending to whisper in her ear.

"I wonder if you could deliver a message to your dear son for me…?"

California:

Having recovered, Superman had taken off and flown after the missile once more, moving up behind it, trying to stay away from the warhead that held the deadly kryptonite. Ahead of him, the city of Los Angeles was approaching quickly. He knew that he had to do something to stop it, but whenever he got close to the nose, he began to feel the effects of the kryptonite.

The fires from the rocket fuel that pushed the missile forward spread over his face. Taking a deep breath, he began to blow with extremely cold air. Lois called it freeze-breath, icy wind that would even cool lava if it were sustained for long enough.

He blew, cooling the rocket fuel and eventually freezing it, as well as icing up the inner circuitry of the rocket engine. With no forced momentum keeping it airborne, the missile began to fall out of the sky at an alarming rate, threatening to crash and explode in Hollywood.

Superman flew after it, catching the warhead and twisting his body to throw the missile back up into the air. As the missile went skywards, Superman paused, out of breath for a moment due to the kryptonite. After regaining his composure, he flew upwards, catching the missile and ignoring the pain as he drove through the upper atmosphere, reaching escape velocity and powering his way out of Earth's gravitational pull, throwing the missile, setting it on a direct course with the planet Venus.

Floating in space for a few moments, Superman allowed the sun's rays to penetrate his skin, feeling his immense power return to normal levels, before turning back towards Earth, heading home to Kansas.

Soaring above the clouds, his cape fluttering behind him Clark increased his speed, worried that Lois and his mother might be ripping each other's throats out. He laughed to himself, at that thought.

His smile faded though as he saw smoke rising in the distance as he neared Smallville. Focussing his vision, Superman realised that the smoke was coming from the farm. Anxious now, he descended quickly, dropping into Smallville and grabbing a hold of the massive water tower that made up the extent of the town's skyline.

Picking it up and ripping it from it's hinges, Superman flew with the tank, dropping it on the cornfield, allowing the water to douse the flames while he continued on, landing near the house that was now on fire. Taking a deep breath, he began to blow out the flames, first around the house, then the barn and finally the cornfields that hadn't been put out by the water.

Looking around, Clark noticed his mother sitting in a car with Lana Lang. She was obviously shaken up. Moving quickly, he rushed to the car to check on his mother, not knowing what had just happened.

"Mom…Lana…what happened?"

"I don't know Clark," Lana answered, " I saw the smoke and drove over…when I got here, Mrs. Kent was on the ground and the whole place was on fire."

Clark searched with his eyes, looking for a clue to help him figure out what had just happened. Had it been an accident? Was somebody playing a cruel joke? He had his answer when his mother overcame her shock and spoke up.

"It was Luthor….and General Zod…"

"Zod?" Clark couldn't believe it. Zod was supposed to be in jail, deep underground in the Nevada desert. How could he have escaped? He tried to control his anger as he looked around the decimated farm once more, realising that someone was missing.

"Mom…where's Lois?"

"They…they took her…Clark, they know who you are…I dunno how but they figured it out. They came here…not for Clark Kent, but for Superman."

"Where did they go? Mom, did you see which direction they went? Maybe I can catch up with them…"

"I know exactly where they went…Luthor told me. He wanted me to give you a message. He…he said that Lois would die unless you met him at the last refuge of Krypton…"

"the Fortress…"

Martha nodded her head, watching the rage build up inside her son. His fists were clenched, his eyes seemed to burn, like a fire that was consuming him. Lana offered to take care of Martha, getting into the car and driving with Clark's mother to her home.

Alone now, Clark stood, looking north, trying to control his anger and fear. He took off, exploding into the sky, his cape almost ripping apart as he flew faster and faster, crossing the border into Canada. The beginnings of a snowstorm were interrupted as Clark blasted through the clouds, his sheer speed causing them to dissipate.


	7. Issue 25

Issue #25 – SHOWDOWN

Fortress of Solitude:

He crashed through the ice ceiling, landing hard on the floor of the great monument to Krypton. Superman's eyes scanned the Fortress, noticing Lois lying on the ground. She had been beaten badly. Her face was swollen, blood rushed from her nose as well as various cuts all over her body.

Using his x-ray vision, Superman saw that Lois had a few broken rips but there was no life threatening injuries. He untied Lois and removed the gag that had covered Lois' mouth, allowing her to speak.

"It's a trap…"

Clark didn't have time to react as a fist connected with his jaw, knocking him to the floor. Regaining his composure, he stood up, staring at Zod who was smiling viciously. Next to him, Lex Luthor stood and laughed, mocking the Caped Wonder.

"Well hello there Superman…or is it Kal-El…or Clark? You know you really should make up your mind. After all it's not fair on Miss Lane here, what's she supposed to write when she does your obituary for the Planet?"

"Save it Luthor…you're going to pay for what you've done…"

"Perhaps…but not in this lifetime…General, you wanted to kill Kal-El…go right ahead."

Zod grinned for a moment before charging at Clark, connecting with a powerful punch to his chest, then following up with an uppercut to his chin, sending Superman backwards against the crystal wall of the Fortress. As Zod attacked again, Superman responded, kicking out and getting to his feet, grabbing Zod's head and slamming it into his knee.

As Zod recovered, Clark ran at Luthor, stopping suddenly, feeling a familiar pain throughout his body. Stepping back, Clark turned into a punch from Zod, who followed up by blasting the Man of Steel with a powerful surge of heat energy at close range.

Retaliating, Clark flipped his body, bringing his legs up together to strike Zod in the face before twisting and charging fists first into the Kryptonian General. Staggering backwards, Zod didn't have time to react as Superman blew a gust of wind, sending Zod crashing through the ceiling and onto the ice above.

Flying after him, Superman grabbed a hold of Zod's legs, dragging him through the air, higher and higher, before tossing him violently back through the ice smashing into the Fortress floor.

Without wasting any time, Superman descended rapidly, driving his foot into Zod's chest and pushing him into the wall, delivering a right hook to Zod's face and a blast of heat vision aimed at Zod's own eyes, causing the General to cry out in pain.

Luthor was shocked. He had never seen Superman display such a ruthless use of his power…had he been holding back all these years or was it anger that was driving him forward? Whatever it was, it didn't matter. Lex began to realise that this was a fight that Zod couldn't win. Not that it mattered, Lex Luthor always had a plan B.

Zod attacked again with a flurry of punches, getting frustrated as Superman dodged each one, ducking under the last and striking with a heavy blow to Zod's stomach, then lifting Zod's head and with a tremendous force, delivered the final strike, his fist connecting with Zod's face, sending him flying back across the Fortress towards Luthor.

"No more games Lex…you lose."

"Not quite…Clark."

Superman watched and waited as Zod struggled to stand. He had been one of the most trusted advisors to the Science Council on Krypton. After waging war against its people, he had finally been stopped by Jor-El and now his son, Kal-El was laying waste to him. Zod's body was bruised, his bones broken. But now he was feeling a different kind of pain.

Turning as he stood, he saw Luthor holding something, his hand outstretched. Zod recognised the green glow coming from the object as kryptonite. Lex smiled, walking towards a control panel, activating one of the crystal switches. After his battle with Superman, when Brainiac had controlled his body, the artificial intelligence had been destroyed, but Luthor still retained some of the knowledge and instinctively knew how to operate Kryptonian technology.

The Fortress grew dark, light energy flashed across the main cavern, focussing on a central point….a small wormhole began to form, acting like a black hole, sucking in anything nearby that wasn't bolted down. While Lex waited behind the control panel and Lois hid behind one of the large crystal pillars, Superman stood firm as Zod backed into him. Zod knew where the wormhole lead to and he was determined not to go back there.

"You betray me Luthor? You wish to send me back to the Phantom Zone…but I won't go back…I won't go back."

"You failed Zod…you can't defeat him…so you are of no further use to me. Goodbye Zod."

Superman didn't move as Zod held onto his cape, trying desperately to pull himself away from the wormhole. By the time Zod realised who he had been holding on to, he didn't care, he just wanted to escape the fate that Jor-El had placed upon him years ago.

Clark however, knew that Zod was too dangerous. He knew that Zod would destroy everything and everyone he held dear if he let him escape. grabbing Zod by his clothes, Clark lifted him up, preparing to throw him into the portal that led to the Phantom Zone. He had declined a chance to put Zod back in the Phantom Zone years before, a mistake he wouldn't make again.

"I won't go back…I won't…"

"There's no other way Zod…when you're in there, think about all the things you've done…the people you've hurt. Perhaps someday you will be released again if you can truly change your ways…think about it."

Superman held onto a pillar with one hand, throwing Zod towards the wormhole with the other. He watched as Zod disappeared into the Phantom Zone before the wormhole collapsed and disappeared.

When he turned back around to face Luthor, he felt his strength suddenly start to leave him as he fell to the floor in pain. Green and red energy surrounded him, draining his power. He realised then what was happening. Luthor was using the same machine to drain Clark's energy that Clark himself had used on Zod in their first encounter. His cells became filled with red sun and kryptonite energy, his abilities…flight, strength, speed, various breath and vision powers, his strong hearing, all disappeared.

When it was over, Clark stood up and spotted Lex Luthor who was standing at the control panel.

"Why…why didn't you kill me?"

""Oh don't worry…not-so-super…man. But it's not enough to just kill you. I want to squeeze the life out of you with my bare hands. In past encounters, you've had the advantage of being a god…well I want to know what you're like…what happens when a god becomes a mortal…two men…a fair fight."

"A fair fight? That doesn't sound like you."

"Sure it does…what better way to hurt you than to make Miss Lane here watch as I beat the life out of you? You're nothing without your powers…care to prove me wrong?"

"You're holding kryptonite…"

"Oh your right," Luthor said, before putting the chunk of kryptonite into a small lead box, "I'm sure Miss Lane won't mind holding on to it."

Lex tossed the box towards Lois who caught it and put it in her pocket. She knew that Lex had to be up to something, it wasn't like him to fight fair.

"Don't do it Clark…you can't trust him," Lois pleaded.

Clark knew she was right. Lex couldn't be trusted. But this was a rare chance for Superman. His powers were gone…he didn't have to hold back. For the first time in his life, he could strike without endangering people, he was mortal, practically human now and Lex Luthor was waiting to fight. Clark remembered what both Jor-El and Jonathon Kent had told him about revenge, he knew it was wrong…but in this case he was ready to make an exception…his opponent was Lex Luthor and Clark had a score to settle.

"Alright Luthor…you're on. It's time we finish this once and for all."

Superman charged at Luthor, knocking him to the ground, falling after him. Kal-El's fist met with Luthor's head, again and again, before Lex managed to push him off, kicking out. Both of them rose to their feet, throwing punches, dodging and weaving, two bitter enemies fighting for supremacy.

Both men swung, landing blows, Superman landed a shot to Lex's ribs, making him cry out before he retaliated with a devastating right hook, knocking Superman off his feet.

"Come on get up...I said GET UP!!!" Lex spat in Superman's face. "You have no idea how much I hate you, how much I loathe everything you stand for...you alien freak. Every time I thought I'd won…you'd come back…well no more. Today you die."

Superman got to his feet, blocking an attack from his opponent before striking out with a powerful jab, cutting Luthor above the eye. On and on it went, both men fighting, both determined to emerge victorious...Lex landed a powerful blow, blood started streaming down over Superman's face and down onto his suit. The once bright blue fabric now diluted in red, the great symbol of hope on his chest, now covered in the blood of a god. Both men, battered and bruised, still found the will to fight on.

Eventually Lex got his enemy onto his back, wrapping his hands around Superman's throat, squeezing the life out of him. He whispered in Kal-El's ear.

"Don't worry Superman, if there's an afterlife, you won't be alone...Lois will soon be there with you."

Clark glanced over at Lois, the love of his life, then back to Lex...rage consumed him. Adrenalin was pumped through his body, as he managed to break Luthor's grip on his neck, and get up…dodging a desperate swing from Luthor's fist. Superman, blinded by anger, struck a powerful punch, then another, and another...Lex stumbled backwards, his legs shaking in fear as Superman hit him again and again. Lex fell to the ground, with Kal-El still punching and now kicking him, ignoring Luthor's pleas for mercy.

Lois, afraid that the pain Luthor had caused, the anger that had built up inside Clark for so long would make him go too far, begged Superman to stop. Hearing her voice, Kal-El looked down at his enemy, realising he couldn't kill him, it would go against everything he stood for.

"You're not worth it Luthor…you're going to jail." He threw Lex down and turned, walking to Lois, looking into her eyes lovingly.

"Are you alright?"

Lois looked back and smiled…"I am now." She smiled and hit him playfully. "Don't you dare scare me like that again."

Lex was on the floor, muttering to himself, pulling a gun from the inside of his jacket and pointing it at Clark. Spotting it, Lois pushed Clark out of the way just as Luthor was about to shoot, the bullet narrowly missing both of them.

Superman rushed at Luthor, trying to grab the gun away from his enemy. They struggled, both men trying to gain control and grab the gun for themselves as Lois looked on, slowly making her way towards the control panel.

Lex kicked out at Clark's leg, forcing him to lose his balance and release his hold on the gun. By the time he regained his composure and stood up, Superman was staring down the barrel of the gun as a mortal. If he got shot, he would be hurt, or even die, just like an ordinary man.

"Luthor you poisonous snake…what happened to fighting fair?"

"Life isn't fair Mr. Kent…neither am I."

Lex aimed the gun, smiling as he prepared to fire. He had waited his whole life for this moment and he was going to enjoy every second of it. Noticing some movement out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lois at one of the control panels, talking to herself.

"…please let this one be right…" Lois activated one of the crystal switches and almost immediately the entire Fortress began to shake. The ceiling of ice began to crack and break apart as the entire Fortress of Solitude began rising to the surface.

"What have you done?" Lex was furious…he asked the question but he already knew the answer. He was blinded for a moment as the Fortress was bathed in sunlight. Solar energy entered the structure, rebounding off the crystal walls and connecting with Superman. As Clark absorbed the solar energy, Lex realised that he had lost his chance to kill Superman…that didn't mean he couldn't have his revenge though.

"I know you're powers are returning Superman, but I will destroy you, maybe not your body…but your heart…Let's see if you really are faster than a speeding bullet…"

Suddenly, Lex turned, aiming the gun at Lois…he fired.

Superman, his powers slowly returning, became a blur, dashing across the room to reach Lois, barely managing to get there he caught the incoming bullet. Lex fired again. Thinking quickly, Superman flicked the first bullet from his hand, intercepting the second bullet. The impact altered the course of the second bullet away from Lois while sending the first on a collision course with Lex…penetrating his skull and piercing his brain.

"I lose…" Lex Luthor uttered his final words before falling to the ground, dead. Superman however, checked his pulse and used his x-ray vision to scan Luthor's body anyway, determined to save him if it was at all possible. But it was too late, Lex was gone. Turning away from his enemy's dead body, Superman looked at Lois.

"It's over. Finally…But…how…how did you know…"

"…What…how to bring the Fortress to the surface? Your cousin showed me the first time I came here…I'm just glad I remembered which button to press."

They laughed, sharing a moment. Kal-El, feeling his strength returning, his body, bruised, bloodied and broken but now rejuvenated from exposure to the healing rays of the sun.

Holding Lois in his arms, Superman flew out of the Fortress and onto the ice, letting the sun shine down on them both. They slid for a moment, before coming to a gentle stop. Reaching back into his cape, Clark took out a small box, holding Lois' hand as he went down on one knee.

"Lois…I know this isn't the best time to do this…I had these amazing plans…I was going to fly you to the top of the world and shout…I LOVE LOIS LANE…so that everyone could hear me. But after today…it didn't go as planned but it doesn't matter because I just wanna be your husband. It doesn't matter if I ask you here, or on top of Mount Everest or in the Bahamas…the question will be the same."

Lois stared down at Superman, confused…then it suddenly dawned on her as Clark opened the box to reveal a diamond ring. Suddenly, it didn't matter that her life had been threatened by Luthor, it didn't matter that the day had been saved again. All that mattered was that she was with the man she loved. A tear rolled down her cheek as she looked into Clark's eyes as he continued to speak.

"Lois…as Clark, I have been by you side been friend, shoulder to cry on…and I have loved you. As Superman, I have save your life, shown you the world…and I have loved you. I thought I was here for a reason…to protect and save the world…but there's something more. I am destined to be Superman…just as I am destined to love you…Lois, Will you marry me?"

Lois was lost for words. She stared down at Clark for a moment, then behind him at the Fortress of Solitude. Whatever answer she gave, her life would be changed forever. As she thought about everything that happened to her, she began to smile.

"Did you practice that speech?" Lois asked, amused as Clark looked at her nervously.

"Well…yeah…kinda…well the second half of it…so are you gonna answer?"

"I dunno…can you go do something for a while?" Lois responded, unable to hide the grin as she teased Clark, watching as he became even more nervous.

"Sure…I'll go free Zod from the Phantom Zone, we'll have a good fight and I'll check back in an hour. Will that do?" Clark replied, still nervous but realising that Lois was teasing him.

"Yes…"

"Hold on…you actually want me to go fight Zod?"

"No…I mean…YES…"

"Yes…you'll marry me?" Clark asked, now slightly confused.

"Yeah Smallville…"

"Well why didn't you say so?"

"Well…I had to know…you're Superman and it wouldn't be much of a marriage if I couldn't make my husband sweat now would it…especially since you wear the tights in this relationship."

Clark laughed, relieved as he placed the ring on Lois' finger, then standing up and kissing her. They rose into the air as they kissed, their troubles forgotten as they thought about their lives together. When they landed again, they were inside the Fortress of Solitude.

"So what now?" Lois asked as she watched Clark pick up Lex's lifeless body.

"I'll take Luthor's body back to Metropolis. The police are going to want to ask me some questions but I won't be long. Then we'll go back to Smallville and check on my Mom and tell her the news."

"You should probably think about getting a security system installed in this place as well…anyone could just walk in otherwise." Lois responded, watching as Clark smiled at her before flying out of the Fortress back to Metropolis with the body of Lex Luthor.

Walking to a control panel, Lois activated the main holographic screen, sitting back and flicking through T.V. channels from all over the world as she thought about her future and smiled.

Space:

High above the planet Thurzon, on a ship, hidden from the eyes and instruments of the people on planet, a being watched transmissions from Earth, picking up communications feeds that showed Superman stopping a nuclear missile from exploding over the city of Los Angeles.

A smaller, less menacing-looking being entered the room, bowing before his master, obviously afraid of suffering his master's wrath.

"My lord, Thurzon has been completely conquered…their spirits have been broken…they now serve you."

"Gather their strongest warriors Desaad and assemble the fleet. It is time we paid a visit to Kal-El…he is finally ready to serve me."

"He will not go willingly Master…"

"None ever do…but rest assured, Kal-El of Krypton will be my instrument…he will conquer these humans in my name."

"Yes…my lord Darkseid…"

The being who proclaimed himself a god…and few doubted that claim, sat back on his throne, relishing the prospect of confronting the Last Son of Krypton.

"Set a course…for Earth."

Smallville:

"You think you can marry my son?" Martha screamed angrily at Lois. "Not a chance…Clark is old fashioned…he won't even consider getting married unless I approve of his bride. You're stubborn, hot-headed…I like you…my son needs a strong woman to keep him grounded." Martha's expression had suddenly changed from anger to amusement as she and Lois began to laugh, while Clark breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh don't worry," Lois responded in between fits of laughter, "I'm well capable of keeping his feet on the ground…I'll just have to clip his wings."

Even Doomsday hadn't left Clark this nervous. He found himself backing away slowly from the two most important women in his life, wondering if he should fly away before they got their claws into him. The mood changed slightly though as Martha looked around the farm, now pretty much destroyed.

"I can't believe it's all gone…"

"Don't worry Mom, we'll rebuild it…every square inch."

"But Clark…do you know how much that costs? I'd be better off just selling the land and renting an apartment. I just can't afford to get this place going again."

"You forget Mom…you've got a one-man construction crew as a son…I'll have this place up and running again in no time."

Martha hugged her son, and then hugged Lois too. It seemed like the end of an era, but the beginning of something new. As Martha looked around the farm, she didn't see destruction, she saw new possibilities…plus she had a wedding to plan. She knew that Lois would be too busy to do it on her own and Clark…well Clark wasn't much for picking out dresses.

As Martha drove off with Lana Lang to stay with her while Clark rebuilt the house, Lois watched as the man she loved changed his clothes, becoming Superman in the blink of an eye. Picking her up, Superman flew with Lois back towards Metropolis, unsure of what the future held for them, but not worried. Whatever troubles lay ahead, they would face them together.


End file.
